Divided
by AllHailMario
Summary: Ultimate Tournament's sequel. After an enigmatic man and his organization, Horizon, invade the academy and scatter the fighters, Ike is left with no choice but to travel each dimension and piece together both an army to take back the Linking Dimension and the history behind Horizon. With time running out quickly, will Ike lead such a motley crew to victory or go down trying?
1. Prologue: Goodbye

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to Divided, the sequel to Ultimate Tournament! (Which means if you haven't read that story already, I'd advise you to turn back and do that now so you're not somewhat lost in the plot a bit and the plot twists of Ultimate Tournament aren't spoiled.) Whereas Ultimate Tournament took place in Melee, Divided has upgraded to Brawl, and while Ultimate Tournament focused on mystery and suspense, Divided focuses on action and adventure.

Ike is the main character of this story. There are two things I'd like to point out: First of all, if you're a Super Smash Bros. Brawl fanfic writer, pay special attention to Ike's personality. A LOT of Brawl writers get his personality all messed up (either he's a gruff, insensitive tyrant or he's a cocky, arrogant jerk). Remember, Ike's bluntness comes from ignorance, not arrogance, and while he can't help but state what's on his mind, he's very kind and caring. So, pay attention. The second thing which I think I should point out to prevent some questions later on is that Ike will not have Ragnell for half the story. At the end of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, he returned Ragnell to the nation of Begnion because it was one of Begnion's national treasures. Don't worry, Ike will pick it up later in the story and kick butt with it like he always does in the games.

And with that...let's delve into the prologue. It won't be long until all our heroes are Divided.

--

Mornings have ever been the symbol of life and hope. The sun rises, sending rays of light onto the formerly dark world. Sunrises are a beautiful thing, giving hope to the viewer, and even sunsets radiate of awe, promising those watching it that a new day will come.

But for one young man, sunrises hold an entirely different meaning. The sunrise on this particular day means parting. Farewells. Goodbyes to old friends. As much as he was anxious to see his old home, leaving his friends was hard to do, especially after the events that had recently taken place.

The name of this young man was Marth. Marth was sitting on his bed, staring at the sunrise taking place out the window. A few minutes before, he had been packing. Today, after all, was the end of the Second Generation of Super Smash Bros. In other words, all of the fighters, all of the people across the various dimensions, were packing up and leaving until called again for the Third Generation. However, the thought of leaving the Super Smash Bros. Academy bothered Marth, so he had neglected packing until the last second, and even after he had started packing that morning, he found himself distracted and staring out the window.

He really didn't want to leave. He had made a lot of close new friends in a short period of time just a few months ago, and letting them go was hard. He nearly lost all of them in that Ultimate Tournament incident, and a few months after saving them and ensuring the survival of the Super Smash Bros., they were parting. It didn't quite seem to fair to Marth, but he couldn't disagree with Master Hand's reasoning; an encounter with death that close required time to recuperate, and the Second Generation had gone on long enough, anyway....

Marth glanced at his clock. It read 7:09 AM. He was sure he wasn't the only one sitting in bed, staring out the window, but there wasn't much time left to be dawdling. They were supposed to leave around ten o' clock, and Marth wanted time to eat, say goodbye to his friends, and, well, to the building as well. It had nearly been destroyed a few months ago, too. He hopped off his bed, closed the curtains over his window to prevent himself from being distracted again, and bent over his travel case.

There wasn't a whole lot in the case lent to him from Master Hand. There were some clothes, some money he'd earned during his time as a Super Smash Brother, a little food, and some gifts and knick-knacks. He was nearly finished packing; some of his other clothes laid in a pile beside the leather case. These clothes were replicas of the gray tunic, black pants, and blue cape he was wearing now, but their colors were different. Master Hand had told them to keep them as gifts. Marth sighed and plopped them into the case. He hesitated, then removed the sheath from his belt holding Falchion and laid it gently over the clothes. His packing complete, he closed the top and locked it.

Pulling his trunk behind him, he left his room and turned down the hall. There were doors on the left and right walls which led into the rooms of the other fighters. He could hear movement in some of the rooms, from bed springs groaning to trunks shutting to the sleepy thudding into walls they never saw. Marth stepped down the staircase that led to the ground floor and arrived in the foyer.

The room was massive, the kind of room that echoed all over the place when you made any kind of sound. The floor was black stone and echoed the sound of Marth's boots all over the room. Some chairs and tables were arranged neatly around elegant pillars that reached up to the ceiling. On Marth's left was the exit to the outside--the rest of the Linking Dimension--and on his right was the staircase to the basement, where the other fighters' rooms were as well as the Teleporter that led to the various arenas, and, of course, a secret passageway that helped Marth rescue his friends during the Ultimate Tournament.

Link, Samus, and Pikachu were already up and sitting at a table. Marth carted his trunk over to them and sat down in one of the comfy armchairs. "Were you nervous, too?"

"Well, I'm used to getting up early," Link replied, "and Samus had it trained into her from an early age, right?"

Samus nodded. "And, of course, nobody knows why Pikachu's up."

Pikachu said something in the Pokemon language which was apparently supposed to explain, but the other three, not speaking in the same language, couldn't understand him.

"You shouldn't be so nervous," Samus continued. "We'll meet again soon."

"How soon would that be?" Marth asked.

"About a year. But it's not as bad as all that," she added quickly when Marth started to protest. "Master Hand decided that, since not everybody's coming back, we can still keep in touch with one another. He's giving us Communication Screens before we leave."

"Communication Screens? What do those do?"

"Remember the Comms we used?" Marth nodded; it was hard to forget his first experience with wireless technology. "They're like those, but they have screens so you can see the other person. Pretty basic, really."

Link and Marth stared at her. "It's pretty advanced where we come from," Link said.

Over time, more people poured downstairs until finally the whole academy was up and about. Near eight o' clock, Marth joined the others for breakfast.

"Peach and Zelda have been working since early this morning," Link stated as they sat down with their food.

Peach came bustling out of the kitchen with a new tray of food to set on the long counter. Her eyes were red and puffy.

"Incidentally, Peach has also been crying since early this morning," Samus said, rolling her eyes.

"Crying? Why?" Marth asked.

"Everybody's leaving. It's an emotional moment."

Marth instinctively checked the clock on the wall behind Samus. 8:24. One hour and thirty-six minutes before they were supposed to leave. How did time fly by so fast? He wolfed down his biscuit; he wanted to have plenty of spare time after breakfast to spend on exploring the academy one last time.

Roy sat down with the three eating breakfast. On his plate were two biscuits, three strips of bacon, four sausage links, and, of course, a cup of coffee balanced in the middle. Marth could never understand Roy's infatuation with the drink, as he regarded it highly unstable due to its caffeine spikes, but he let Roy drink what he pleased. Marth himself, after all, had discovered the taste of grape soda during a party, and never let it go after that. He would have gotten a glass of it at breakfast, but Samus had told him not to. Something about it "not being a breakfast drink."

"Are you all packed?" Marth asked Roy.

"Yeah. I'll brainstorm and think of what I might be missing when we're close to leaving, but I think I've got everything."

"Are you bringing coffee beans?"

"No, I wasn't serious about that. I'll have another drink someday, though, I promise you."

"Sure you're not going to stay for the Third Generation?" Samus asked. "We'd all love to have you back."

Roy sighed. "I was thinking about it earlier. That's why I didn't get down as early as everyone else. I was up, but I was just thinking. I've had a lot of good times here, but I still think I want to go back. Lycia _is_ my home, after all."

"True," Samus said. "We really should get back to our old lives. Who knows what the GF's got lined up for me now?"

"GF?" Marth repeated.

"Galactic Federation."

"What's a galactic?"

"You're hopeless, Marth, you know that?" Samus sighed, though she was smiling.

That was another thing the Ultimate Tournament had earned him: Samus's friendship. She was normally a serious, sometimes cold person, but Marth discovered that, what do you know, saving the world together can open up friendships in areas you never thought to look.

--

According to the clock on the wall, it was twenty-six minutes until they were supposed to leave. While Marth didn't want to leave, he wished time would somehow speed up and get it over with. The suspense was nearly unbearable.

The wall the clock was on belonged to the library. The library was massive and was located off the foyer. It was also as beautiful as it was big. The floor was the black, polished stone that the foyer's floor was made of, but the ceiling was quite unique. Many large chandeliers hung from it, golden and white with tiny flames perpetually dancing off all of the many candles on it. In the middle of the ceiling was a long, rectangular window which was completely clear and free of dirt. Several rays of sunshine shone through it, lighting up part of the library. Around noon, it was particularly astounding. The floor would have a bright rectangle mirroring the ceiling's, and the library would be bathed in light. It was also interesting at midnight, when the moon would be directly overhead and light up the floor in pale-blue moonlight.

The library was composed of two floors. Both floors were very long and held books on everything. There were guides here and there to help potential readers find what they were looking for. As these books were from all sorts of dimensions, the library was an interesting place to go to learn more about the dimensions of the other fighters. There were tables with small lamps on them to allow the fighters to read from the luxury of the library. As Falco had once put it, "It makes you feel rich even if you're poor as spit."

The library was only Marth's first stop, and he planned to visit each significant room. He briskly left the room, turned right, and headed for the Meeting Room. The room wasn't exactly filled with nostalgia, but he felt it deserved a visit before he left.

The Meeting Room was a wide room that was usually kept in the dark unless a meeting had been called. It was here that Master Hand would call together the fighters to explain something important. Marth remembered his first time in the Meeting Room and his shock--which was shared by most of the Second Generation fighters--at seeing a giant, disembodied glove enter the room. It took awhile to get used to, but eventually, he accepted Master Hand's appearance and didn't feel uneasy going to the meetings. There were some steel chairs all lined up in front of a long, empty, steel room. Master Hand would appear from somewhere in the back, but even as everybody was preparing to leave, nobody knew exactly how he entered.

Marth didn't stay in the Meeting Room long. Next, he was off to the Home Run Stadium. He hurried down the steps leading into the basement and walked straight ahead out the double doors and outside. The weather was a bit cooler than it normally was in the Linking Dimension, but as the dimension didn't have the same natures or law of physics as others--the sun was not an actual sun, and the moon was not an actual moon--there was no summer or winter. Marth hopped onto the platform and looked around. There was grass stretching on as far as the eye could see, and the field went on for almost two miles. Nobody had hit that far--the best made it over 2,000 feet--but there was always hope in the next generation.

Marth's last stop was right beside the Home Run Stadium. He left the fresh-smelling grassy field, went back inside, and went immediately into the Teleporter. The Teleporter was an enclosed machine about fifteen feet by fifteen feet and had numerous buttons on a control panel in the back. Marth hit a combination of these buttons and waited as the Teleporter hummed. He knew he was flying through dimensional energy at an alarming rate, but it certainly didn't feel like it. After a few more moments, the humming stopped, and the doors of the Teleporter opened.

Before him was a group of stands protected by a high-tech barrier. Marth stepped into these stands and looked out through the barrier...into the nothingness. There was nothing there but empty space. The arena Final Destination had once floated there, before it had been sent into an explosion with the other arena, Battlefield. It had all been part of a madman's schemes to destroy all of the fighters at once. Marth had gained a lot of recognition for battling the villain and leading to said villain's demise, but he felt it was undeserved. He always had help from his friends. It was all because of them that they were even leaving to go back home today. Marth placed his hand on the invisible barrier. It would be a long time before he was reminded of the battle on the hurtling arena...the explosion...the falling...and the pain.

He turned around, entered the Teleporter, and left Final Destination. He wouldn't come back for a year, and that suited him fine.

--

"Is everyone here?" Master Hand's deep voiced boomed out.

It was time to leave. Everyone was waiting in front of the Teleporter, luggage in hands.

"So ends the Second Generation," Master Hand continued. "Any and all of you are free to come back for the Third Generation. Just give the word, and you may return. I've given you all Communication Screens. You may use them to talk to the friends you've made here and to sign up for the Third Generation again. I will give you a few minutes to say goodbye to who you will, but then you will leave in groups. All I can say from then is...good luck. I sincerely enjoyed having you all here."

Marth turned to Roy. "We've already said our goodbyes, but...well...goodbye. Again."

"We'll keep in touch. I don't have to be here to keep you company. How do people come up with technology like this, anyway?"

"You shouldn't ask me," Marth said, grinning. Next, he sought out Link. "I enjoyed being one of the Four Swordsmen, Link. It was an honor to be part of that group."

"Well, it was an honor having you. You certainly turned out to be a good addition when you saved everybody. And you'll be a Swordsman next time, right?"

"Definitely." Thirdly, he found Samus. "Thanks, Samus. You know, for all the help you've given me. You've turned out to be a really great friend, even when we live in dimensions as opposite each other as ours."

Samus gave him a lopsided smile. "You're welcome. You were fun to have around, too."

Turning around, he spotted Bowser. "Bowser!" he called. The Koopa King grunted and glanced at him out of the corners of his eyes. "Remember that time we thought you were behind all the kidnappings?"

"Quite vividly, as a matter of fact. No one really forgets being beaten up by a couple of immature little kids, do they?"

"Well, I wanted to say sorry for that one last time. And, well, we'll look forward to meeting again, right?"

"No. But I doubt I'm going to change your mind, so think whatever you want to think."

"Marth!"

Zelda's voice came from behind him. She stopped in front of him, her hair in her eyes. She wiped the brownish-blonde strands away and looked up at him.

"Goodbye, Zelda," Marth said.

"You've done a lot for us, Marth," she said. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too. But we'll see each other next year, right?"

"Right."

Zelda started forward, outstretching her arms. Marth held his hand out, expecting a handshake, but instead got a hug. Surprised by the action, it took him a few seconds to lower his arms and return the hug. When she stepped away from him, tears were in her eyes.

"Hey, you don't need to cry. We're all going to be back, and we can talk using those communication things Master Hand gave us."

Looking around, he realized Zelda wasn't the only one starting to cry; Peach had tears pouring down her face now. He grinned and faced the Teleporter as Master Hand spoke again.

"Hopefully, you've all said your farewells. Now, I will call out the names of those belonging to the first group and go on down from there. The first group of people leaving includes...Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Yoshi."

The five who were called forth stepped up and opened the door to the Teleporter. Mario pressed a few buttons, and the doors began to close. Everybody inside (save for Bowser) waved at the others before the doors shut and they were teleported back to their own dimension.

"The next group," Master Hand continued, "consists of Pikachu, Pichu, Jigglypuff, and Mewtwo."

The four Pokemon entered the Teleporter. Jigglypuff, standing on her tiptoes, pressed the appropriate buttons, and the doors closed once more.

"Link and Zelda."

"Not Young Link?" Link asked.

"His dimensional-traveling requirements are more specific. We are going a ways through time for him."

Link nodded and entered the Teleporter with Zelda at his side. He raised a hand in a gesture of farewell, and the doors closed on him.

"Young Link now may enter."

Still full of energy, the smaller, more youthful version of Link hopped into the machine and disappeared just like the ones before him.

"Marth."

Sighing, Marth dragged his luggage behind him and entered the machine. He first pressed a button to bring up his own dimension, then entered in the exact location of where he wanted to go. It wasn't hard to find; he had been warped from there when he first received the invitation to the Super Smash Bros. He hesitated for a second. Hitting that last button would send him from the academy, and he would not come back for a year. He forced his finger onto the last button, and the doors closed. His last sight of the academy was of his remaining friends waving at him before he went whirring through the dimensions once more.

A year would pass before they met again. But little did anyone suspect that so soon after meeting, they would be parted again....


	2. Chapter 1: The Invitation

Boyd laid back on the sofa and gave a long sigh of relief. Training was fun and all, and yes, it helped him get stronger, and yes, Titania would chew him out if he neglected it--like he was doing now, in fact--but without a partner, he just couldn't get into it. Besides, if somebody attacked them out of nowhere, he needed to be rested up, right?

Boyd was tall--about six-foot-three--and pretty large. Work as one of the Greil Mercenaries, not to mention participating in a bloody war over two years ago, really beefed him up. Like his two other brothers, Oscar and Rolf, he had green hair.

The events that took place more than two years ago just seemed like bad memories now. Daein, a beorc (human) nation, had invaded neighboring Crimea without warning or provocation. Daein and Crimea had never been particularly friendly with one another, but a full-scale attack was completely unexpected. Crimea was quickly and easily overtaken, and Greil had sent out a scouting party near the capital to investigate the damage dealt, though Boyd himself was not part of that group. The princess of Crimea herself was discovered, and Greil, the leader of the mercenaries, ordered everyone to escort her to Gallia, a laguz nation. The laguz were people who could transform into certain animals. Gallia in particular was a beast nation, inhabited by cats, tigers, and lions. Along the way, Greil fell to a Daein general known only as the Black Knight, and his son, Ike, took command of the mercenaries. After a very long series of events, the Crimean Liberation Army was formed with Ike as its general. Many hard-fought battles later, Crimea was retaken and Daein fell. Control of Daein went to Begnion, the third and last beorc nation.

The Greil Mercenaries consisted of eleven people: Ike, Boyd (of course), Oscar, Rolf, Mist, Titania, Shinon, Gatrie, Soren, Rhys, and Mia. Living with all of them was quite the nuthouse.

Ike had been just a kid of sixteen when Greil died and he had assumed leadership. Back then, he was inexperienced and not always confident in his abilities as not only commander, but general. Two years later, Ike was finally getting the swing of things. Tall with blue hair and a muscular body, he looked his part. His traditional wear was a flowing red cape, which made him instantly recognizable from just about anywhere, and a long strip of cloth used to keep his hair out of his face.

Mist was Ike's little sister. She was about 14 or so with long brown hair and kind, caring eyes. Apparently, she was much like her late mother. Rhys had taught her how to use a staff long ago, so now she was invaluable whenever someone was injured on the battlefield. She did most of the cooking, though Oscar would occasionally whip up one of his famous recipes.

Oscar was Boyd's older brother. Slim, neat, and polite, he looked the opposite of Boyd. He also constantly nagged him about everything, or so Boyd thought: "Get your feet off the table, Boyd." "Your room is a mess, Boyd." "You know Titania's going to chew you out if you start slacking off your training, Boyd." Frankly, he didn't see why he couldn't keep his room messy if it was his room, anyway. And he was over 20! Why was Oscar still babying him!?

Rolf was Boyd's younger brother, which naturally meant that Boyd got to pick on him. "Peewee" and "squirt" were some of his favorite names for his little sibling. Unfortunately, getting older seemed to have messed with Rolf's brain, because now he fought back physically during the arguments. As if he could beat Boyd! Please!

Then there was Titania. She was the oldest of the mercenaries and perhaps had the most experience. Boyd both loved and feared her company; he had developed a crush on her at some point before he discovered that she was much, _much_ older than he was. Her presence also meant no slacking off. Sometimes, Mist would imitate Titania's voice to give him a good scare. He hated that.

Titania may have been the oldest, but Shinon had been the first mercenary to join Greil, though he never talked about where he came from. He excelled at two things: Archery and offending people. In particular, he seemed to hate Ike for some reason. He was easily identifiable by his long red ponytail, though it was also easy to pick him out because he preferred solitude.

Gatrie had struck up something of a kinship with Shinon. He was stocky with blond hair and wore heavy, protective armor into battle, making him a slow but effective powerhouse. Unfortunately, Gatrie was clumsy, gullible, and a womanizer. Everybody had lost track of how many "girlfriends" he had.

Rhys was a frail young man who had joined about three years ago. Despite the fact that he was their primary healer, he himself was often sick and bedridden. He was known for his peaceful and polite demeanor.

Nobody knew a whole lot about Soren, their mage. Despite the fact that he was Ike's age, he still looked like a fourteen-year-old boy. He was the group's strategist and staff officer. No one knew where he got all of his strategies from, but they had never failed. While he was blunt, serious, and often rude, he was probably Ike's best friend.

The last and most recent member of the Greil Mercenaries was Mia. She had joined the group the night Greil was killed and proved to be a valuable ally after that. Her cheerful and upbeat personality either kept the group going or bugged them.

The place the Greil Mercenaries lived in was a small fort in the forest. Whenever people sent letters or messengers to them requesting their help, they'd prepare themselves, leave to a village or town some distance away, take care of whatever was bothering the citizens, receive a (usually small) amount of money, and travel back home. It was a tough life, but Boyd wouldn't have traded it for anythng else.

A feeble knock on the door made Boyd growl in frustration. Could he not have a moment's peace!? He ignored it and turned over. The tiny knock came again. Boyd pulled a cushion over his head. _Let somebody else answer it._ Through the cushion, he heard another knock, this one even louder. Cursing, Boyd threw the cushion away, stomped to the door, and flung it open.

"What?" he demanded.

To his surprise, there was nobody there. He leaned out of the doorway and looked left and right. Nobody to be seen. Muttering under his breath, he closed the door and retreated back to the couch.

Not five seconds after Boyd had laid down again, a fourth knock came. He moaned, slumped off the couch, and opened the door again. There was still nobody there. Maybe it was Rolf, that little twerp, playing tricks on him...yeah, that had to be it...he cautiously closed the door and sat back down on the couch, waiting for the next knock. It came, as expected. Growing angry, he flung the door open a final time and yelled, "Listen, Rolf, if that's you doing this, then I am going to kick somebody's--"

A high-pitched voice from somewhere around his feet interrupted him. Stunned, Boyd looked down. Standing there was a pink, rubbery ball with arms and legs attached to it. It blinked up at him in greeting.

Boyd freaked.

"Whoa!" he shouted, backing up quickly. He tripped and fell onto his bottom. The pink creature seemed slightly worried but didn't move.

"Is Ike here?" it squeaked.

"What the heck are you!?" Boyd yelled, throwing what little manners he had to the wind.

The pink creature wasn't perturbed by the comment. "My name's Kirby! I'm from Dreamland!"

_Then that would explain it,_ Boyd thought. _I'm dreaming._

"Is Ike here?" Kirby repeated.

"Uh, yeah, sure, just...give me a minute or two," Boyd stammered, then got up to his feet and ran to find Ike, shouting his name as he went. He turned down a hall but still didn't find him. Frustrated, he turned around and walked straight into Ike just as he was coming out a door.

"I'm right here. You don't need to yell," Ike said. "Now, what's so important that you have to run around the fort yelling like this?"

"There's a...thing outside wanting to talk to you," Boyd answered.

"Isn't 'thing' a little harsh?"

"You'll know what I mean when you see it."

Ike gave Boyd a suspicious look, then headed for the fort's exit. Standing right at the doorway was the pink ball. Ike hadn't seen or heard anything like it. Suddenly "thing" seemed a lot more appropriate.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Ike asked cautiously.

Kirby nodded and presented Ike an envelope. Assuming it was an obscure mercenary job, he opened it up and read it:

_Mr. Ike,_

_This letter is an invitation to the Super Smash Bros. In the Super Smash Bros., we fight, grow stronger, and form new friendships. Our building will not be anywhere you know of; in fact, it is not of your world. My messenger, Kirby, has a device that will take you there. It is completely safe, and all fighters are treated luxuriously. Your friends and family are welcome to come along, and you may travel between the Linking Dimension--my world--and your world, Tellius, at will. You should ask Kirby for more details._

_We hope to see you there._

_Sincerely,_

_Master Hand_

Ike looked up and noticed Kirby holding a gadget nearly as big as he was. Perhaps he was expecting Ike to get excited and go immediately.

"Well, what's involved?" Ike asked slowly.

"There are lots of other fighters invited from other dimensions," Kirby explained in his high-pitched voice. "They can teleport to other dimensions and fight each other in battles where their bodies are protected, but they don't have to hold back. I'm one of the fighters," he added.

Ike couldn't imagine Kirby fighting anything; he was barely taller than his boot. Nonetheless, he refrained from stating what was on his mind and went on to his next question. "Who is Master Hand?" When he had read that name in the letter, he couldn't help but picture a sinister-looking man with a shadowed face dressed in a fancy suit.

"He's the founder of Super Smash Bros. He invents all of the technology there and hosts everybody."

"I would be cautious of this," Soren said flatly. Ike jumped--he hadn't heard Soren approach. He did that a lot. "A creature we know nothing of comes from a place we know nothing of and asks us to accompany him to a group of people we know nothing of. This could easily be a trap."

"Come on, Soren," Ike protested. "Who'd want to hurt me?"

"Do you really need to ask that?" Soren responded, narrowing his eyes. "And besides, I'm suspicious about the fact that he knows your name."

"We know about everybody months in advance," Kirby piped up. All three eyes turned back to him. "That's how Master Hand picks his fighters."

"You've been spying on us for months?" Ike said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not me. Master Hand uses technology to do it." Ike still felt uncomfortable.

But nevertheless, nobody expected his next statement.

"Alright, I'll do it."

Soren frowned but said nothing. His silence after decisions had been reached always signaled his disapproval. Boyd, on the other hand, took to protesting immediately.

"What, you're just going to leave us all here!?" Boyd yelled. "And why didn't any of us get the invitation!?"

"You can still come," Kirby said.

Ike walked back into the house. When all but Kirby followed him, he said, "You can come in if you want." Without hesitation, he bounded into the room and leapt onto the sofa Boyd had been attempting to nap on moments before. Boyd looked like he wanted to drop-kick the tiny guy.

Ten minutes later, everyone was gathered together in the briefing room. It seemed as if everybody was reacting differently to Kirby. Boyd glared at him from the opposite chair. Mist was gazing at him like she would a young puppy. Titania wanted to seem polite but still couldn't hide her awkwardness. You might not have known Shinon was aware of Kirby's existence if he didn't glance at him occasionally. Gatrie was giggling incessantly at the pink ball ("I really wish you would stop that," Shinon warned). All the others showed confusion on their faces.

"I know this is a little sudden," Ike began from his chair, "but I'm going to be leaving for...I don't know how long. I'm been given an invitation to...what was it, Kirby?"

"The Super Smash Bros.," Kirby amended.

"Right. It's a sort of fighting group. So while I'm gone, we'll need to reassign leadership and take care of a few more things." Shinon sat up straighter in his chair. "In my absence, I'd like Titania to lead the group."

"Are you sure this is wise, Ike?" Titania asked. "I mean, you're right, this _is_ a little sudden. You've always been rather impulsive, but is this rushing it a little?"

"I'll be fine," Ike promised. "Kirby, well...he doesn't exactly look like someone who'd lie to me, does he?"

"Of course not," Mist put in. Ike knew it was taking all her willpower not to start cuddling him.

"Things should go as they always have here when I'm gone," Ike said. "I'll probably be leaving in just a few moments. When are you ready to leave, Kirby?"

"Whenever you are," said Kirby, shrugging his tiny shoulders (which apparently blended in with the rest of his body).

"Do I need to pack anything?"

"Nope. Master Hand provides everything."

Ike stood up. "That's it, then. I'll come back soon, I promise. Titania, lead the group well. Mist, keep cooking fine meals. And the rest of you work hard. All right?"

"Yes, Commander," Titania replied. The others nodded (all except Shinon).

Kirby hopped off his chair and scurried outside, trying to keep up with Ike's stride. When he reached the door, Ike turned and raised his hand in farewell.

"So...where to?" Ike asked.

Kirby took the device off his back and began punching in some of the buttons. "This Portable Teleporter will take us there. Master Hand used to send talking balls of energy to invite his fighters, but he decided that sending me would be less impersonal."

Ike imagined a glowing ball of energy talking to him in a thunderous voice and was glad Master Hand had reconsidered. The Portable Teleporter began flashing a bright blue. Every time it flashed, it grew brighter, larger, and faster, until the light was expanding outside of the device and into the air around it. Ike backed up uncertainly. After reassuring himself that Kirby would not harm him, he stepped into the light.

"Ike!"

Mist's voice sounded from behind him. Ike turned around and saw his little sister hurrying towards him. "I just wanted to say goodbye," she panted. "And...be careful, alright?"

"Of course. You know me, Mist," Ike joked. "I'm all about the safety."

"Will you promise me that you'll come back often?"

"I promise. I'll be fine, Mist! Don't worry."

She nodded, apparently reassured. "Goodbye, Kirby."

"Goodbye."

Ike watched as Mist ran back into the house. He'd miss her, but right now he was going to explore--what was it? The Linking Dimension?--and become part of the "Super Smash Bros." The light was now whirling around them and completely obscured the outside world. He felt the light start to cling to him. It burned slightly, but did not harm him. The light forced his body to lean backwards and his arms to become outstretched. When the light overtook everything else and he couldn't even see his hand, he knew he'd just been warped.


	3. Chapter 2: Super Smash Bros

The light dissipated.

Ike was no longer staring at the same outdoors surrounding the mercenary fort. The difference was quite noticeable. The air smelled unnaturally clean and pristine, and it was quieter than normal. He didn't even notice any birds flying overhead or small rodents bounding up trees. The sun above him seemed too close to the world to be safe, and yet he felt perfectly fine. Actually, the air didn't seem to have a temperature at all, like he could exist anywhere at anytime and still be safe. _That's a weird feeling,_ Ike thought.

Before him was a large, gray-stoned building. The wide steps leading up to it made it feel like some sort of school. Above the pair of doors leading to the building's entrance was a phrase in iron letters saying, "Super Smash Bros. Academy."

"It's not actually a school," Kirby explained to a slack-jawed Ike. "Master Hand said that the fighters who came there were going to 'learn more than they ever thought possible.' At least, I think that's what he said...maybe it was 'discover' more than...."

Ike paid no attention to Kirby's self-ammending ramble and slowly walked up the steps. When Kirby realized that he was being left behind, he bounded up hastily. Feeling like he was walking on ground older than anything he had known, he gently pushed the door open and stepped inside the academy.

Whoever Master Hand was, he had to be a master architect. "Laziness" and "negligence" were two words that didn't pop into Ike's head when he studied the building's interior. The foyer's floor was made of polished marble which looked good against the black walls and ceiling. Four tall stone pillars near the corners stretched up to the ceiling and had several patterns etched into them. Around these pillars, wooden tables and comfortable-looking armchairs were gathered together. On Ike's right were two staircases; one leading to a basement, and another going the opposite direction Ike was facing and leading to the second floor. Straight ahead was an exit to a bright green field. In the far-left corner was a towering, elaborate doorway that probably led to some important room. Directly on his left was a small hallway which led to a door on the right wall.

Ike had thought that nobody could possibly look stranger than the pink ball that was Kirby, but he was dead wrong. All kinds of people were standing about the foyer, apparently expecting somebody to arrive. One person was a fox standing on two legs who was wearing a cream-colored jacket and had an advanced-looking pistol strapped to his side. He also saw a bright green lizard bouncing happily on the spot. There was another small, pink ball that looked somewhat similar to Kirby. Ike could not have been more surprised if Mist had announced that she was marrying King Dheginsea and kicking Ike out of the fort.

"Welcome, newcomer," said a blonde woman leaning against one of the pillars.

"Yeah, welcome," Ike replied awkwardly. "Look, I'm new here, so can anyone tell me what's going on?"

"We're just waiting for the others," said a green-clad swordsman. "You're one of the last to get here."

Ike noticed that Kirby had left, probably to recruit the remaining fighters. He wondered how long he had been at it and had to admire the guy for his blissful perseverance.

"Where do I wait?" he asked the swordsman.

"Just anywhere," he answered. "You don't have to wait. You can go get settled in if you want to. I'm Link, by the way," he added.

"Ike. And I'll wait. I have nothing better to do." He took a seat near Link and faced the door. "So, uh, is this your first time here?"

Link shook his head. "I was here during the First Generation."

"That means nothing to me."

Link grinned at his ignorance. "I was one of the first fighters Master Hand invited here. 'Generation' means the time when Master Hand invites a group of fighters here, they stay here for a time, and then leave. This is the Third Generation."

Ike quickly began learning more about the people around him ("academy" didn't seem like such a stretch now). Both heroes and villains had been invited, and everyone had an amazing story to tell--it was practically expected. Link had saved two different lands from two different madmen (though the latter was more a sinister object of immense power and influence). The blonde woman, Samus, was a bounty hunter and had destroyed entire enemy camps, facilities, and hostile planets single-handedly. A boy of thirteen or fourteen had gone on a journey to become a "Pokemon Master"--whatever that meant. Apparently, he had become the "Pokemon Champion" of his particular region, which seemed to be quite a feat. Some of the fighters knew each other from their own dimensions. Mario and Bowser, a portly plumber in overalls and a huge beast, glared at each other from across the room. He wondered how many relationships were good and which ones were in the gutter.

"That's all of them!" Kirby exclaimed thirty minutes later.

The last fighter--an angel with an energetic personality--had been brought to the academy. He had arrived much more excitedly than Ike did and didn't seem to care a lot about who or what was involved. At first, Ike thought he was another one of the Heron Prince Reyson's long-lost siblings, but it was clear that he was just an angel. _Just,_ Ike thought. Reyson was a heron laguz prince and had lost almost all of his countrymen in an event known as the Serenes Massacre. Ike had found his sister, Leanne, whom he had long thought killed in the massacre, which led to friendship and a change of heart about humans for the heron. Herons dressed in white robes and had large wings even when not in bird form, while Pit, the angel, had the garb of a proud and powerful civilization and had wings that barely looked big enough to support him.

"Great! Who do I fight first?" Pit said, looking at each of the fighters eagerly.

"We're not challenging you," said Samus, rolling her eyes.

"Then when do I fight them?"

"In due time," said a deep voice.

Ike jumped. The voice came from the hallway he had spotted on his first look at the academy's interior. Shortly after this enigmatic voice, a siren went off on one of the walls, making Ike jump again. Most of the people in the room left their positions and headed into the hallway. Following their cue, the newcomers trailed behind them.

The room they entered was wide and dark. A large group of chairs sat on a small ledge facing the rest of the room. Ike figured the wide space was to display some sort of performance or ceremony. Everyone made themselves comfortable in the chairs, and Ike followed their lead. Not long after, something even more startling than anything Ike had seen so far happened.

A giant, floating white glove entered the room from the shadows in the back. While the newcomers all jumped a third time, the veterans still didn't show any surprise. _How could they could used to all this?_ Ike wondered.

"Welcome," greeted the glove, despite the fact that it had no visible mouth. "I am Master Hand. I'm pleased to meet you all--those who have come here for the first time and those who have already been here. I expect those who were present at the First and Second Generations to make the newcomers feel welcome. That includes you, Bowser."

"Why do I have to stoop down and pamper a bunch of whelps!?"

"There are a number of reasons, but chief among them is that I told you to."

"I'm the King of Koopas! I don't have to--"

"Furthermore," Master Hand continued, "I am doing something I have not done at all so far. A feast is being issued across various dimensions. Tonight, you will all dine on my expense. Hopefully, this will get the newcomers used to the way of things here and will spark a few friendships. I'd like you all to do your best to make them comfortable and tell them how everything works.

"Now, the newcomers have all received invitations from my ever-faithful messenger, Kirby, whom I thank wholeheartedly for volunteering for this, saying that this is a place where we fight. To answer your question, Pit, there will be no fighting tonight. That will start tomorrow. You can fight at your own leisure. Simply talk to however many people you want to fight, state your rules, and if the arena you want to fight on isn't being used, you may fight there."

"Hey, pardon me," Ike spoke up, "and I know this is a really stupid question, seeing as you all probably know the answer anyway, but...what's to stop each other from burning everyone to cinders? Seems to me like we all fight with something different--" Ike drew his large sword, Ettard-- "which could lead to some, well, deaths."

"That's not a stupid question," Master Hand responded. "It's perfectly normal, and if nobody here asked it, I'd wonder if I had picked up a bunch of drooling lunatics. I've created Smart Shields to protect the fighters. Let's say you attack Luigi with your sword, Ike--which looks like it would do a load of damage given the size and shape. Even if you collided a full swing with his head, he would still walk out of it perfectly fine. The Smart Shields protect your bodies and equipment, so the pain and damage is dulled to a complete minimum. Should something serious arise, which it occasionally has, as I will be the first to admit, we have four doctors on hand: Samus, Zelda, Peach, and Mario. Or Dr. Mario, if you prefer that in the Recovery Room."

"Either's fine," Mario chuckled jovially.

"So there is no danger of killing one another so long as you battle in the arenas and arrive via Teleporter. You can come and go to your own worlds as you please, visiting your families if you so wish. By winning battles, you may earn Smash Coins, and using these Smash Coins, you can buy gifts I've provided or turn it into your world's currency." Ike thought of how poor his mercenary company was and perked up at this idea. "Your rooms will be assigned to you shortly, either upstairs or down in the basement. When this meeting is over, you may make yourselves comfortable there. At 6:00 Linking Dimension time, the feast will be held. I will send off the Meeting Signal then to call you all down. Any other questions?"

"Yeah," Pit said, looking around the room, "how long did it take you to design this place? Did you do it yourself?"

"Well, my 'brother' helped me out, and it took me quite awhile. Probably not as long as you're thinking. Do you have a question relating to how things work?"

"Nope. Think I've got it."

"Good. You are free to ask questions to anybody and everybody. I encourage you all to strive for the best and make as many friends as you can. After all, no amount of money, fame, or power can compare to the strength of a lasting friendship."

"Money cuts it pretty close," Wario stated flatly.

"It comes as no surprise that you would make such a statement. But if that is all, you may leave. I shall call you all down at 6:00 to start the feast."

Everyone stood up and left the room. Ike still didn't know what to make of the situation. Everything seemed so complicated. Would he have been better off rejecting the invitation and staying at the fort? But then, he knew this would turn into something great. He already felt kinships forming, and the thought of earning more money for his poor company was admittedly compelling. He grabbed a sheet of paper that appeared on a stand on his way out. It showed him where his room was and continued on several more pages paper-clipped together giving him the details of the Super Smash Bros.

His room was in the basement. He half-expected a cheap, cold, cobwebby stone room with a few cramped bedrooms stuffed in as an afterthought. Of course, he was surprised again. The basement was every bit as stunning as the foyer, also composed of marble floor and black walls. It stretched on for quite awhile, doors lining the walls. Following the directions on his clipped sheets of paper, Ike stopped in front of one of the doors and opened it uncertainly.

He might have joined the Super Smash Bros. just for the room. The bed was large and inviting, draped cleanly with thick sheets. There were a few machines in the corner of the room. Ike had no idea how to work this technology but figured that he'd find out soon enough. There were closets, shelves, and racks aplenty. Ike detached Ettard from his belt and placed it on one of the shelves. He plumped down onto his bed and found it satisfactorily soft. No more sleepless, uncomfortable nights on his small and dingy cot--this would do the trick. He laid back on the bed and put his hands behind his head. This was pretty good, he had to admit.

Thirty minutes later, he snapped back to alertness. He had almost fallen asleep on the bed. He didn't realize he was that tired. And he hadn't even tried to make friends with the rest of the fighters! What was wrong with him!?! Ike jumped off the bed hurriedly, left his room, and hustled up the stairs.

There were a few people in the foyer: Mario and Luigi were playing a board game, Zelda was reading a book, and Pit was still admiring the decor. Ike stood beside him and gave another look around.

"Pretty huge, isn't it?" he said.

"I'm used to huge," Pit responded. "And I'm also used to fancy, but not when one or two people put it all together!"

"I'm Ike, by the way," he greeted, holding out his hand. Pit took it.

"Pit. Nice to meet you. This your first time here, too?"

"Yeah. I'm still trying to get used to it all. Sometimes I wonder if I ever will."

"You will," Pit assured. "Soon enough, we'll be masters of this place. What do you want to do first?"

"Huh? Oh. I really have no idea. I guess just wait for the feast."

"What, just sit on your bed and twiddle your thumbs? No way!" Pit chastised playfully. "How about we play whatever Mario and Larry are playing? They look like they're having fun."

"It's Luigi!" the plumber yelled.

The mercenary and angel took seats around the table, watching the game. It was played on a checkered board, and intricate pieces occupied some of them.

"What is it?" Ike asked.

"Chess," Mario replied, "and currently, my little brother is beating me like I've never played it before."

"He may get all the fame," Luigi said, "and the girls, and the adventure, and maybe even slightly the guts...but I _rule_ at chess!"

The next fifteen minutes were spent teaching the two of them how to play the game. By the end of it, Ike's brain was thoroughly fried, but he understood the basic concepts of it. Pit seemed to have caught on better than he had. After learning where the board games were kept, they got their own chess board, set up the pieces correctly, and began to play.

"So...." Ike looked at his ivory pieces uncertainly.

"White moves first, according to Mario," Pit said.

"Right...." Ike picked up his pawn and moved it one space diagonally.

"You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"You can only move diagonally if there's an enemy piece on that spot."

"How do you remember all this stuff?" Ike asked, slightly annoyed.

Pit shrugged. "No idea. I just do. You can, however, move it two spaces forward on the first turn."

It was a slow start, but they eventually got going. In between turns, the two of them swapped stories.

"So, what do you do?" Pit asked Ike.

"I'm a mercenary. What do you do?"

"Captain of Palutena's Holy Guard."

"That's quite a title," Ike commented. "Personally, I never could stomach any of the noble, royal stuff. Life as a mercenary is the only life I could imagine."

"Any claim to fame?"

"What?"

"Anything you're famous--or infamous--for?"

Ike shrugged, not very willing to talk about it. "Well, I _did_ lead an army as a general once...."

"Sweet! I guess we're pretty much on par then," Pit said excitedly.

"Well, I gave that up awhile ago. Like I said, I never could stand any of the fancy noble stuff."

"It has its ups and downs," Pit admitted.

The game whiled away the hours until finally, the clock said 5:28. So far, Pit was winning. It was aggravating.

"Are you sure you've never played this?" Ike grumbled.

"Nope. First time."

Ike wondered if this was entirely true but didn't press the issue. Sure enough, at the end of the game, Pit had won, and Ike's king was knocked over.

"I think I just got mopped," Ike said as he put the game up.

"Ya think?" Pit said smugly, leaning back in his chair. "We should play that again sometime."

"Why, because you won?"

"Well, it's fun."

"Somehow I don't think that's the only reason."

"Come off it."

A long, beeping sound filled the room, and a light flashed on the wall. The Meeting Signal had gone off.

"Dinnertime," Pit muttered happily, then dashed off to the Meeting Room. Ike got up, stretched his arms, and slowly followed him. He had made a strange friend in Pit in such a short time. Smiling to himself, he entered the big, dark room, one of the first to arrive.


	4. Chapter 3: Going Out

"I trust all of you are here," Master Hand said, "but nevertheless I want to check. Mario?"

"I'm here."

"Luigi?"

"Here."

"Link?"

Master Hand went down a mental list and called off names one by one. Every time he called, somebody answered. Ike was impressed at the being's memory. Never did he call off the same name twice or hesitate, trying to remember a name.

"Hey, Master Gab," Wario yelled, "could you consider speeding it up a little? No pressure or anything, but _some_ people are hungry!"

"Patience, Master Flab," the white hand said. A hint of amusement could be heard in his voice. "I understand that your stomach may be larger than your brain, but you will have to wait just a little longer. Marth?"

The roll call continued while Wario fumed at the countered insult and the others laughed. "There sure are some interesting types around here," Ike whispered to Pit.

"Name one person that isn't," the angel muttered back with a grin on his face.

"By the looks of it, everybody's here," finished Master Hand. "Good. Nobody has to be left behind, then. The feast is about to start. I'll sort everybody out into various groups, and when they're all sorted, they'll enter one by one into the Teleporter and warp to the specified dimension. You'll have two hours to eat and talk, which will be more than enough, I should think. Remember, hosts, to make the newcomers feel welcomed and engaged. When your two hours are up, follow the directions your host will give you to return here. Does everybody understand?" Nobody said otherwise, so he continued. "Mario, Peach, Sonic, Olimar, Pit, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Nana and Popo--otherwise known as the Ice Climbers to those who are new--and Mr. Game and Watch will head to Mario's dimension. Link, Zelda, the younger Link, Yoshi, Lucario, Luigi, and Fox will go to Link's dimension. Samus, Marth, Ike, R.O.B., Snake, Bowser, Red, Pikachu, and Capt. Falcon will go over to Samus's dimension. Finally, Falco, Wolf, Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Ness, Lucas, Jigglypuff, and Wario will go to Star Fox's dimension." ("Great, we get stuck with the fatso," Ike thought he heard Falco mutter.) "I'll give you twenty minutes to change and dress for the occasion if you want to do that. I would advise those going to dimensions they're not used to to dress in a way that does not, shall we say, make people wonder. I've given the hosts suggestions on such topics. And with that, go and prepare yourself. Be back here twenty minutes from now and we'll get started."

The Meeting Room became full of buzz and noise as everybody got up, conversed, and tried to sort things out. Ike saw Samus walking toward him. "You're with me," she said, then left to find the other newcomers.

Ike wasn't overly concerned about where they would eat or what it would be like. He wasn't even concerned that so many things were happening in such a short time--it was easy to forget that he had been sleeping happily in the Mercenaries' Fort just that morning. No, what bothered him was 'dressing in a way that does not make people wonder.' He didn't know what exactly that entailed, but he wasn't eager to find out, either.

"I've got some clothes picked out for you," Samus informed Ike after a few moments. His stomach felt like it was full of rocks. He resisted the urge to grimace. "Follow me." Forcing his feet to move, he tailed the blonde out of the Meeting Room, upstairs, and into her room. He stood at the entryway, not willing to budge much further. Samus opened drawers around the room until she found what she was looking for, then came and presented the bundle to Ike. He was uncomfortably reminded of the day he was titled general of the Crimean Liberation Army.

"I'm supposed to wear this?" Ike said, holding the shirt up.

Samus nodded impatiently. "Don't put up such a big fuss. It's not going to kill you. I'll bet you've faced tougher things than wearing clothes."

Not sure how the end result would look, Ike accepted it and wandered into a closet.

--

"We've got five minutes," Samus called through the door. "Are you dead or what?"

"It took me awhile to figure it out."

"It can't be that much different from your old clothes."

"Okay, I was procrastinating a little."

"So you're done?"

"I think so."

"Then come on out."

Ike opened the closet and stepped out. He was used to wearing a tunic and cape, so the new clothes seemed uncomfortable on him. He was wearing a plain black short-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans. On his feet were a pair of black sneakers--it was an unusual experience to wear something that he felt left vulnerable too much of his leg. Spreading his arms out, he asked, "Well?"

"Perfect. There's not much we can do about the blue hair, so we'll just leave it as is."

_What's so odd about blue hair?_ Ike thought.

"And take the strip off from around your head. People will think you're a terrorist."

Without the long strip of cloth holding his hair up, it fell disgracefully across his forehead and over his eyes. Ike brushed it out of the way so he could see clearly.

"Leave your sword here. Watching somebody carry a huge, two-handed sword through a restaurant can be disturbing."

"I know that," he retorted. Leaving Samus's room, he set his sword on a shelf in his own room. Knowing that he would probably be late if he delayed any longer, he went straight down the stairs and headed into the Meeting Room.

After a few minutes, everybody else arrived. He noticed Marth, who he understood was the prince of another country, was also wearing similar clothes to Ike's. He wondered if Marth was upset about that, but if he was, he didn't show it. He actually seemed to be somewhat pleased by the new look. Personally, Ike didn't know what to think of his. To his surprise, Pit had not changed at all. Rather than pursuing the subject, he chose to remain silent and hear what Master Hand had to say.

"The first group to leave will be Mario's. Now remember, Mario will tell you how to get back to the academy, and don't wander off and get lost. That would just cause us more trouble than we feel like having, especially at the very start of the Third Generation."

Mario's group entered the Teleporter. Peach was giving out further instructions and precautions while Mario resigned himself to merely pressing the appropriate buttons. Pit turned and waved cheerily to Ike, who gave a small wave back, before the doors closed.

"Next is Link's group. I know he doesn't talk much, but if you have a question, ask him."

Link and some others who had apparently been in the First or Second Generations gave a knowing smirk. It must have been an inside joke.

"Alright, now Samus's group may proceed," Master Hand continued. "And yes, I expect you to be friendly and engaging as the host, Samus."

"I'll do my best," she replied. "Come on, follow me."

The others who were in Samus's group left for the Teleporter. They all piled in, though it was just big enough for nine people to fit in without causing too much claustrophobia. The walls and floor seemed to be made completely of solid steel. Despite the years of wear on them, they didn't show the slightest sign of scuffing, aging, or scarring. There was a control panel in the corner with so many buttons that Ike didn't bother trying to figure out what they meant. Samus was currently jabbing away at these buttons without a hint of hesitation.

"This isn't going to hurt, is it?" Snake asked.

"You'll barely know we warped," answered Samus, still pushing buttons.

Snake was a strange sort of man. He was tall--taller even than Boyd--and appeared very solidly built. In fact, Ike had overheard that his first name was Solid. _Solid Snake_, Ike thought. _Quite an interesting name._ His voice was low and raspy but filled with a kind of black humor. The impression Ike had of him was that if espionage was needed, this man was the man to call.

The room started humming as Samus hit the last button. She walked among the others and handed them white-colored devices.

"Clasp them around your wrist," she instructed. "You can use it to warp back to the academy."

Ike did as he was told. He felt more technologically advanced already. And more technologically ignorant.

When the humming stopped, the doors opened. What he looked at was not the academy, but a different place entirely. Building rose up on two sides of a black street. Lights, signs, and other machines were everywhere. A steady stream of large, colorful machines zoomed past them on the street. To his alarm, there were people inside of them. Weren't they going a bit fast?

The Teleporter seemed to melt into white light around them, leaving them stranded in the middle of another dimension. Nobody seemed all that surprised to find a blocky robot, a yellow mouse, and a huge turtle standing in between two large buildings. Ike understood why when he saw that one couple strolling by had purple, scaly skin. When they looked at him, he spotted slit pupils. The sight unnerved him.

"Don't go out into the street until I say so," Samus yelled above the noise.

_Does she honestly think I would?_ thought Ike as another one of the machines barreled past.

"Alright, now."

Ike dashed across the street, glancing in both directions to make sure none of the machines were coming. When he saw that he was safe for quite awhile longer, he slowed down his pace but still leaped to the other side when he was within five feet of it.

When he looked behind him, he saw that the other eight were still only halfway across and weren't worried at all, although Snake found something amusing and Samus looked like she was wondering if anybody witnessed the incident.

"There's no need to run like a Grenchler's after you when the light says go," Samus admonished.

"How was I supposed to know that?"

"Well, you could have stayed with the group," she suggested.

Feeling embarrassed, he let the issue drop, as did Samus, and stayed with the others as they walked down the sidewalk.

"What are those machines, anyway?" Ike asked.

Samus looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Cars?"

"The ones that keep blasting down the road?"

"Yeah. It's an easier method of transportation."

He nodded, though a thousand questions still jumbled in him. "Aren't they going a bit fast for safety? It seems to me if one little thing got in the way, an accident would happen."

"That's why we have driving laws," she said. She seemed both impatient and appealed by his ignorance of technology. "The restaurant is straight ahead of us. See it, guys?"

The building wasn't nearly as huge as the skyscrapers around it, but it was still a good three stories high. The walls of the first two levels were made completely of glass, which gave the people eating inside a nice view out.

When they entered the building, a multitude of smells hit Ike. The only time something had come close to it was when he was dining with Queen Elincia and the rest of the royal court, and even then, it didn't hold a candle to this. First there was the smell of food--all kinds of it--which got the mouth watering. Lying beneath that was a very clean smell. Even as he looked around, he noticed that the entire restaurant was unnaturally spotless. The answer to this dilemma came to him when a robot no bigger than his shoe wheeled past, looking for more filth to clean.

The floor was made of white and red ceramic tiles, and the walls were pure black but adorned with a plethora of pictures of every little thing. There were elaborate chairs placed around wide square tables, and on the sides were comfortable-looking velvet booths.

A pretty waitress with brown hair in a ponytail greeted them and introduced herself as Brianna. "How many?" she asked.

"Eight," Samus replied, "but only seven chairs, please. The robot can stand on his own."

Smiling, Brianna led them through the restaurant. "Booth or table?"

"Table, please."

They found a particularly large table in the corner of the first floor. Brianna removed one of the chairs and set it away. R.O.B. immediately took its place and fixed his orbs on her, studying her with an innocent expression.

"I'm going to give you guys a few minutes to sort out what you want, okay?" the waitress asked. They all agreed and sat down.

"Sort through the menu and see if you can find anything that looks interesting. If you need me to explain what the different foods are, I'll help. R.O.B., you don't need to eat anything."

Ike picked up his menu and flipped through it. It wasn't just that he didn't understand the foreign delicacies; he didn't understood culinary terms at all. In his fort, meat was called meat and salad was called a salad. He had no idea what "red starburst salad deluxe" was. In the end, he settled on a plate of fried eggs and bacon, a universal food no matter where you were. As for a drink, Marth recommended grape soda, so he ordered a glass of "Grape Exploda" when Brianna next returned.

R.O.B. tapped Samus on the shoulder with a metal arm and pointed at his menu. She leaned over and squinted her eyes, trying to see where he was pointing. "Why do you want beef and broccoli?" she asked. "You don't eat, do you?" R.O.B. pointed at it again. Samus shrugged and said, "Alright.

"Now, does anybody have any questions about Super Smash Bros., how it works, or...?"

"Yeah," Ike said, "what happens if Master Hand's...shields fail to work? Do we have doctors?"

"He mentioned it earlier," Marth replied. "Mario, Peach, Zelda, and Samus are our 'doctors.' When the occasional accident happens--and it they do happen--we have one of them care to them, though their positions differ slightly."

"What do you mean?" Ike asked.

"Well," said Samus, "each of us--me, Mario, Zelda, and Peach--have been trained in all areas since arriving here, but in general we have different jobs. People go to Mario if they think they might have broken something or need a checkup. If it's an emergency, they go to Zelda."

"Her magic sometimes patches up what science can't," Marth added.

"Yeah, thank goodness for that. Peach has taken over the job of dentist. Most people take 'Dentist Days' and just go see her for the day. Aside from Zelda, she's probably the busiest. And I'm known as the surgeon, although I've thankfully never had to do surgery on anybody. I also do a little research on the side."

"Weird."

"What kinds of accidents have happened?" Red asked. His voice was entering the maturing stage, just higher than Pit's. Ike occasionally heard people call Red the "Pokemon Trainer." He had no idea what Pokemon really were, but he assumed the two creatures sitting next to him were related to it. Red had wisely decided to keep Charizard, a large dragon-like Pokemon, in his Poke Ball for fear of setting anything on fire.

"Well, first you have to understand what Smart Shields do," Samus elaborated. "They're thin barriers that protect the body and dull pain. That doesn't mean it blocks everything, so if something hits you hard enough or in just the right position, you can still get seriously hurt. We've had some broken arms, broken ankles...mostly a bunch of broken bones, since it's hard to cut anything with Smart Shields dulling it to a thud."

Marth laughed to himself. "Remember that accident in the Jungle Japes?" Samus frowned, staring at him, then smiled a little as she remembered something. "Roy and Fox were trying to have a match before dinner, so they tried to do it so fast they forgot to properly activate the Smart Shields. The battle went alright for the first few seconds, but then Roy nearly lopped Fox's arm off with his sword." Marth laughed harder then. "I remember everybody going to see what the commotion in the lobby was while we were all in the kitchen. The two had no idea what had happened. After that, _everybody_ was double-checking their Smart Shields."

Samus finally laughed. "Even Bowser."

"Not that I ever needed it," the Koopa King growled.

"Just out of curiosity, which one's the Smart Shield button?" Ike asked. To him, it was more ominous than funny. He imagined accidentally chopping off Pit's wing and shuddered.

"We'll show you with your first match," Marth assured him. "It was scary then, but we all laugh about it now. Just remember to take your time when setting match rules and you should be fine."

Brianna arrived again with their drinks, then asked if they were ready to order. Once their orders had been given, the conversation resumed.

"What kinds of arenas are there?" Red asked.

"We're not sure yet," said Marth. "Usually, there will be one or two from each person's dimension. Those that are too dangerous or unwise to teleport directly to have been cloned virtually by Master Hand. He's supposed to have created a few of his own, too."

"Basically," Capt. Falcon added, "think of an important place in your world, and that's probably one of the arenas." The bounty hunter/F-Zero racer forewent his usually brightly-colored costume in favor of a more common look with a tan jacket and black pants. His helmet had been removed as well, revealing brown hair.

"Oh, wait," Marth said suddenly. "I just realized something. In the Second Generation, Ike, we had a group we called the Four Swordsmen, but at the end of the generation it had to break up because Roy and Young Link left us. But now that we have you, the smaller Link, and...what was his name, The Metallic Knight or something?--we can create it again, only make it the Five Swordsmen."

"Meta Knight," Samus corrected.

"Well, what's involved?" Ike asked. He remembered asking those exact three words to Kirby earlier that day.

"Nothing serious," Marth assured him, "just going out as a group to do various things, like participate in free-for-all matches together or eat out. It's a lot of fun. What do you say?"

Ike shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not."

"Great! I'll talk to the others about it."

R.O.B. began fiddling with his napkin, twisting it and maneuvering it through his steel grip. Interested, Ike watched him. When he was done, he held an elaborate paper boat in his hands. The robot's work was amazing. It had oars and everything.

"I guess things are easier when you're a robot," Snake commented as R.O.B. showed it off to everybody. Ike smiled.

"What time is it?" Red asked.

Samus checked her watch. "7:09, Linking Dimension time. We've still got awhile."

Brianna arrived again with their food. Ike, well-known among the Greil Mercenaries for his monstrous appetite, smelled the fried eggs and couldn't wait to dig in. When she set down her last dish but before she went away, R.O.B. scuttled forward and held out his paper boat to her. "It's beautiful!" she cooed. He held it up higher, intending for her to take it. She accepted it gratefully, beaming at the robot. Having accomplished his work and made somebody happy, R.O.B. went back to his place at the table.

"That was nice of you," Marth praised. R.O.B. blinked twice at him in return.

"So when can we fight?" said Red, holding Squirtle in his lap.

"I would bet tomorrow," Samus stated. "Nothing serious, like a tournament, will happen for awhile. Master Hand will probably wait for everybody to settle in before something like that happens."

"That sounds reasonable," said Snake. "How about tomorrow, you and I have a battle? I'm anxious to see what you can do."

Ike usually missed the subtleties in conversation with others, but he seemed to get the impression that Snake was making a move toward Samus. He didn't know whether she got the same feeling, but she didn't show it and instead said, "I don't know. We'll have to see what goes on tomorrow."

After downing his first fried egg, Ike stood up. "I've got to find a bathroom. Do you know where one is?"

Leaning back, Samus pointed to a hall at the end of the room. "Just go through there and enter the one that says 'Men' in about five or so different languages. You can't miss it."

Thanking her, Ike headed in the direction she had indicated. In just a few minutes, something critical would happen that would alter the events of all the fighters.

--

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Best cliffhanger ever, right? Ike has to pee, and I decide to end the chapter. Nevertheless, something important _is_ about to take place. You guessed it--the prelude to the division.


	5. Chapter 4: The Offer

_Mira Ktoche_

_G'rhk Shnta_

_Pok Drel_

These were only a few of the languages posted on the door to the mens' room. Some were written in letters he couldn't even understand. Ike wasn't sure why they needed so many languages (it turned out to be around ten) to say two simple words when a mere sign would have done just as well, but then again, he didn't understand any of the "futuristic stuff" anyway. _I guess this must be a sort of hotspot for many different races,_ he concluded.

Going to be the bathroom, funnily enough, turned out to be an adventure in itself. He had thought as much when he saw all of the strange devices. The white seats, he assumed, were the toilets. Just by holding their hands underneath a metal pipe, water gushed forth. There was even a machine that spewed out paper. More than once, he had attracted suspicion from other people when he sat around to watch what everyone else was doing and copy them.

He left the bathroom and started scanning the room for his table, happy to be free of the embarrassment. _I'm probably never going to see them again anyway_, he thought. _Why worry?_ As he found his table and started toward it, a voice interrupted him and a hand touched his arm.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Ike turned and looked at the man. He was just a bit taller than Ike--about 6'1"--and had unkempt brown hair which somewhat obscured his eyes, much like Ike's hair at the moment. He was wearing a black coat with long coattails, a white shirt underneath it, black pants, and brown leather boots. While the attire (and hair) gave him an air of power and authority, there was something about him that Ike felt he could trust. He didn't know what it was--if anything, he should be wary of this man--but something about him seemed trustworthy.

"You mean me?" Ike asked.

"Yes. My name is Pane. Not as in 'ouch' pain, mind you, like a windowpane. I don't bite, you see."

"Yeah, I see." There was silence for a moment as both of them evaluated the other. "I assume you stopped me for something?"

"I wanted to ask you some questions. It won't take long--just a few minutes. I understand you have a sort of dinner thing going on, so I won't keep you long."

Ike looked back at the table. None of them noticed him. Feeling naughty, but still trusting this man called Pane, he nodded. "Lead the way."

They wove in and out of the crowd. Fortunately, nobody in the room quite looked like Pane, so it wasn't hard to lose sight of him. They finally arrived at a small table on the third floor, right in the corner where the walls were made of glass. They were quite a ways up. Pane motioned for Ike to sit down in the opposite chair.

"Sorry, I was only eating dinner by myself," he said. "Feel free to mooch on those breadsticks, though. They were appetizers."

Not one to reject food, Ike took a breadstick.

"Now, I wanted to talk to you about a sort of job offer," Pane continued. "I know I called you here on rather short notice, and I apologize, and I'm not expecting you to jump up, shake my hand, and sign a contract, but it's just something I'd like you to consider. I'm the head of a mercenary company. If there's a wanted criminal running around, no matter how dangerous he is or where he is, we go out and we capture him. Or her. It's pretty dangerous work, and recently, our numbers have been...low. We need some new recruits, so...."

"You want me to join?" Ike finished.

"It's not just you," Pane added. "For any of your friends. After all, through the best of my poor knowledge, you and your friends are part of a sort of fighting group, right?"

Ike nodded slowly. _This man knows a lot. I thought this sort of thing wasn't common knowledge._

"And I've even seen what some of you can do. I think you guys would...you'd fit the bill. And again, this isn't a decision I'm expecting you to make right now. You can think about it. Red starburst?"

The question caught Ike off guard. "What's that? Some sort of catchphrase you use around here?"

Pane laughed. "No, it's this." He held up a red, juicy-looking leaf that had been resting on his plate. "They're considered a delicacy in many areas. I don't flavor mine, so you'll have to eat it as is. Want to try it?"

He accepted the red starburst and bit into it. It was kind of like a fruit in both taste and texture.

"I could get hooked on those," Ike said with a grin.

"Yeah, I guessed. Typically, you're not supposed to eat the stems. Just don't eat too many of them--they have a tendency to make you grow fat." Pane patted his belly for emphasis. "Anyway, how does the job offer sound to you?"

Ike shook his head. "Thanks, but no. I've actually got a mercenary group I lead myself, only it's not quite as...advanced as yours. And we're not exactly from around here, so we couldn't just travel back and forth."

This seemed to surprise him. "Not from around here? How'd you get here?"

Assuming he would already know about such technologies anyway, Ike chose not to conceal much information. "Teleporter. You know, like one that goes through dimensions?" _He probably knows more about it than I do._

Instead, Pane just blinked. "You mean like a portal? I know some planets can sometimes develop parallel dimensions inside them, but it's pretty rare."

"No, like...it's hard to explain. Like a different world, a different universe altogether."

He nodded his head in understanding. "So you warped from across the universe?"

"No...how do I explain this? I don't live here. I mean, no matter where you went in the universe, you wouldn't find me. I exist in a completely different dimension, one that doesn't have any of this. Actually, comparatively speaking, it's rather primitive. That's not common knowledge here?"

Pane shook his head slowly. "No, actually, it's kind of hard to grasp. No wonder you don't live...but if you said your dimension is primitive, how'd you get the technology to warp dimensions?"

Ike sighed. He barely knew any of it himself. "There's a kind of nexus that I was called to. That's where we--the fighting group you mentioned--stays. Technology there is really advanced. Listen, I don't even know much about it myself. I was just called there today."

Pane looked like he wanted to ask more, but he stopped and glanced at a pocket in his coat. "Give me just a moment, somebody's calling me."

_From in there?_ Ike wondered. He resisted the urge to lean over and look. He knew he would just look even sillier. After fumbling around in his pocket for a bit, Pane pulled out a black metal device about four inches long, pressed some buttons on it, and began to talk.

"Hey, this is Pane. Is Target 3 secured? ...Alright, good. Remember, he may have had backup. ...Yeah, I know you do. Just be careful. ...You guess correctly. I'll be arriving back shortly. ...No, he didn't. Alright, I'll see you later. Bye."

"Who was that?" Ike asked.

"One of my Top Officers. That's the name we give to the top five most combat-capable of the bunch. Anyway, like I said, I'll be heading back to headquarters shortly, so I'd better wolf down this meal. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I appreciate it."

"Yeah, thanks for the offer. It's an intriguing idea, but I don't think my guys would be too happy if I left them. Well, then again, one of them might."

Pane gave a short laugh as if he understood. "There's one in every group, right? Well, take care."

Ike wandered across the room, trying not to bump into customers, waiters, and...robots?...that were walking away. He hoped Samus wouldn't chew him out too much. He didn't know exactly what she could do, but he knew she had to be good to be in the Super Smash Bros., and he certainly didn't want to make her angry.

"Did the toilet monster eat you?" Bowser jabbed as Ike sat back down at the table with the others. "You've been gone for about half an hour! How long could you possibly need to take a--"

"Not while we're eating, please," Samus interjected.

"Besides, you're one to talk," Capt. Falcon admonished, "when you can hardly fit your butt onto the seat anyway."

"Oh, little shrimp wants to go?" Bowser growled, leaning forward. "Perhaps there's something _else_ I'll be stuffing into the toilet before the night is over, and I'll find the dirtiest--"

"I said not while we're eating!"

"I couldn't figure out half the stuff," Ike admitted. Somehow he didn't want to tell them about Pane. It seemed like a secret that should be kept. "I spent a good ten minutes or so just watching how everybody else did things."

"Ignorant little caveman," Bowser muttered.

The meal continued like this until Samus finally put Bowser into a chokehold and stopped the argument, although the Koopa King did glare at Samus every now and then. Ike was grateful for her intervention--he could sense an actual fight coming up. When he caught her eye, she gave him a small grin. He grinned back.

His mind drifted off of the conversation around the table, where various stories were being swapped, and onto Pane. He had only seen him for a few minutes, but somehow he got the impression he'd be seeing him again in the future. As the head of a mercenary company, he must have had some skills, but the rest of him was shrouded in mystery. Now that Pane was no longer in the room, the odd sense of trustworthiness seemed to disappear, leaving Ike to wonder if the man was really a fighter for justice or if he was corrupt in his power.

He was brought out of his reverie when the others asked him for his own "story," which Ike deduced was really the reason Master Hand had called him. He retold the story of the Mad King's War, leaving out a few details he felt were either insignificant, too personal, or just too much of a secret. Some of the others looked at him with awe and respect. Marth, for some reason, had a knowing expression on his face. Perhaps he had gone through a similar ordeal. Unfortunately, Ike hadn't been paying attention to his story.

When it was time to leave, they all gathered whatever belongings they had (or boxed up whatever food they couldn't finish; Ike, hungry as ever, had eaten all of his and then some) and left the restaurant. According to Samus, they couldn't simply warp back to the academy anywhere they wanted, since that might draw undue attention. Ike wondered why they could simply warp into the dimension right in front of everybody but not out of it, but decided not to ask. They wandered the city for a bit until they found a nice, empty back alley.

"There may be thugs back here, so keep your guard up," Samus warned them.

Ike felt vulnerable without his sword. He had only trained fighting bare-handed occasionally, and he definitely wouldn't consider himself an expert in it. His sparring sessions were usually with Boyd, sometimes with Shinon or Oscar, but they didn't always go down well. Every time he sparred with Shinon, he would get "accidentally" punched in the face from the archer's supposed lack of control.

Every time they felt it was safe to warp away, somebody else would come walking out of a side alley and frustrate their efforts. Once, they had been right in the middle of preparing to warp away when Snake noticed a man sitting on a rooftop smoking a cigarette. They had to constantly move forward, deeper and deeper into the alley. By this time, everyone's nerves were frayed.

The icing on the cake came when a cocky voice came from the next alley on their right.

"Hey, hey! Where y'all going to?"

As they stepped around the corner, they found eight quite thuggish-looking young men--or aliens--sitting on boxes or leaning against walls. One of these men, who had a scar running from the left side of his jaw to underneath his left ear, hopped off a box and strutted somewhat closer to them. He was wearing a scuffed black leather jacket, dirty jeans, and black gauntlets. He had the speech and mannerisms of a leader of rebels.

"Do you see this line?" he demanded, pointing at the ground in front of them. While he was pretended to be angry and serious, he was obviously enjoying himself. "See it? That's the line of our territory. This is our home. We don't welcome intruders."

"You call every alley you settle in your home," Samus said. "We just want to pass through peacefully."

"Pass somewhere else," one of the other thugs spoke up from his box. The leader held his hand up to him to quiet him.

"Well, now," he said, a smile growing on his face. "I didn't know there was a chick with you. That changes a few things. C'mere, baby, let's have some fun."

Ike, Marth, and Falcon all instinctively stepped in front of Samus. Looking unimpressed, the gang leader motioned for his guys to do something. As one, the men stood up and circled their group.

"Who are these guys?" Ike muttered.

"We call people like these 'family jewels'. They're typically composed of people who have some official combat training and decide to take their friends and become a gang in some rundown place. They work ordinary jobs by day, but at night they hang around and cause trouble by committing crimes. They live in the same place and share all their spoils."

"Tell you what," the leader announced. "If you give us the chick, we'll let you just walk away. That's not a bad deal, am I right?" The other jewels murmured their assent.

"Disband," Ike ordered. "We don't want a fight, and we're not handing her over to you. This is just pointless."

"Come on, we promise we won't hurt her. We're fun-loving guys. We'll all have a great time, and she'll be back in the morning. There's no harm in that, is there?"

"We're not going to avoid a fight," Marth said. "I think we should accept that and work our way out of this as quickly as possible."

Ike found a wooden plank about three and a half feet long lying on the ground. He picked it up, planning to use it as a weapon, crude as it was. The others prepared themselves.

"No, huh?" The leader frowned. "Stompy, rough 'em up a little."

"Stompy" turned out to be an alien bigger than Bowser who sported light blue skin, a large crest on the back of his head, huge arms, and fingernails that resembled claws. He stepped forward, looking at them all as if deciding which one to eat first. Ike glanced at his plank and wondered if it would do any good against the creature.

Without warning, he swung a fist at Capt. Falcon, he leapt over it, then ducked to avoid another punch. Ike lunged forward and swung the plank with all his might. It snapped in half without Stompy so much as flinching. He turned and glared down at Ike. The blue-haired hero stared at his foot of wood left, threw it away, and jumped out of the way of a kick.

"You know, we could just warp away, couldn't we?" Ike muttered to Falcon.

"That takes time," he replied. "We'd be vulnerable. We'll have to fight."

"Ah, whatever. Take 'em all on, guys. Just bring the chick out."

The six other guys plus their leader closed in on them, some drawing knives and other weapons. Ike desperately wished he hadn't broken his plank.

He dodged a knife swung quickly at his belly, but it still managed to cut a hole in his shirt. The man dangled the black cloth in front of him teasingly. Ike responded with a punch, but it never reached its target. Samus was right when she said they were trained fighters. Blood spattered a nearby wall as Ike's hand was cut in between two knuckles and down the back of his hand. Biting back the pain, he decided punching was a stupid idea and searched for another weapon.

The other fighters were doing considerably better than him. Snake and Falcon were throwing away enemies as easily as a hot knife cuts through butter. Samus's style of fighting was quick, smooth, and..._exotic_ seemed the best word. She was unnaturally fast and somehow seemed to anticipate her opponents' moves before they even knew them. Red had called out Squirtle, one of his Pokemon, to do battle, but so far things weren't going so well. Squirtle just wasn't fast enough. Fortunately, its shell protected it from knife attacks. Pikachu was zapping the remaining thugs.

"Stompy" was creating a lot of trouble for them. He had already kicked Marth aside, which Ike knew had to hurt, and was eyeing Snake next. Before he could reach him, Capt. Falcon leapt up, brought back his fist, drew power into it, and slammed it into Stompy's chest. A burst of fire knocked the alien onto his back and stunned him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ike noticed the leader of the gang with a device in his hand. Ike had seen similar devices on Fox, Falco, and Samus. Guns, they called them. He was also aware that they packed enough power to cut through skin and bone easily. He was too late to dodge. The leader pulled the trigger and shot a beam at his head.

A few moments later, Ike realized he was still alive, intact, and relatively unharmed. The gang leader seemed just as confused as him. He stood still long enough for Samus to make her way over to him and put him out of the action.

"Is that all of them?" Red asked, holding up a Poke Ball in case Squirtle was okay to retreat.

Samus nodded. "They're not dead, just hurt or unconscious. Ike, Snake, can you carry Marth?"

The prince had been kicked right into a wall by Stompy, hard enough to damage the wall, which happened to be made out of stone. Ike and Snake rushed over to him and carefully lifted him up.

"Is he going to be alright?" Snake asked.

"He'll be fine," Samus answered. "Let's warp out of here before people come looking to see what all the commotion was. Follow my instructions. Snake, can you do Marth's bracelet yourself?"

After pressing a few buttons, a white light began to envelop them, like the time Ike first warped to the academy. Feeling like he was being watched, Ike turned and looked over at a rooftop.

There was Pane, tossing and catching a small ball of plasma--the same beam that had streaked toward Ike's head only moments ago. He grinned. How he could hold a substance that harmful and be unscathed, Ike didn't know. It was too late to properly thank him, so Ike gave a small grin back before he warped.


	6. Chapter 5: Life at the Academy

When Ike opened his eyes again, he was back inside the Teleporter along with the others. Marth slumped against his shoulder. He couldn't tell if he was even conscious or not.

His thoughts continue to drift around Pane. _He touched burning energy with his bare hands, and it didn't harm him at all. And how did he save me from that beam so quickly? Is it more technology of the future? There must be more to Pane than meets the eye..._

He was brought back to reality when Samus opened the door and they all marched out. Everybody else was already there, talking or playing games in the lobby, apparently waiting for the last group to arrive. A few of them rose out of their chairs when they saw the condition of some of the group's members, especially Marth.

"What happened here?" Fox asked, stepping forward.

"We ran into a little trouble on the way back," Samus summarized. "Just local thugs. He'll be fine. Everybody, could you please clear the way to the Recovery Room?"

A few of the fighters stepped out of the way, allowing their group to pass through safely. Samus pushed open the door to the "local hospital" and led the way in.

Ike had never been inside the Recovery Room before. Everything was a too-pristine white (_The kind that makes blood really stand out,_ Ike couldn't help thinking). All kinds of machines and gizmos lined the wall to the left as well as several beds and tables. All the way at the end of the room was a doorway to another room which held medical garb and supplies. To the left of that doorway was a block of area that was shielded in by a thick steel door and repellent green energy. There was a door on the right wall, but Ike didn't know what it held. Samus ordered Ike and Snake to place Marth on one of the tables, which they did so gently.

"What are you going to do?" Red asked.

"We need to know the extent of the damage," replied Samus. "Once we do, we can respond accordingly."

As Samus went to a nearby machine and punched in buttons, Peach, Zelda, and Mario all entered the Recovery Room. Ike remembered that they were the four "doctors."

"Moldy ravioli, not again," Mario sighed in his pleasant-sounding accent.

"Is this commonplace with him?" Ike asked, referring to Marth.

"Not necessarily," said Zelda. "It's just...it brings up memories of another incident where he was injured."

Ike wanted to pursue the subject, but thought better of it and turned back to Marth. A red light was now shining down onto him from a beam above. A minute of tense silence passed as the machine shone on him. Finally, the light ceased, and a screen flashed to life on the console. The entire gang, plus the three currently-but-tentatively-off-duty doctors that had just arrived, pressed around it as Samus read off what it said.

"It looks like he has a few broken ribs," she said, "plus...a piece of shrapnel imbedded into his lower-right back. He must have been kicked into something metal."

The doctors looked at Samus, who closed her eyes and sighed. This, apparently, meant something to them. When Red said as much, Peach answered, "It means that, for the first time, we'll have to actually do surgery. The day has finally come."

"You've never done it before?" Ike asked. They shook their heads. "Ever?"

"We've practiced a lot," Zelda said solemnly to him. "There are training programs through the door behind you that allow us to simulate various situations, surgery being among them. However, the Smart Shields have usually been enough to block most of the damage to the members here, and when injuries did happen, surgery was never required."

_That explains what's behind that door,_ Ike thought.

"Wait, Ike's bleeding, too," said Peach. She held up Ike's right hand daintily, not wanting to get blood on her glove.

"What?" Samus snapped. "I thought you just got that on your hand from carrying Marth. What happened?"

"I made a stupid move and got myself cut," Ike explained. "That...doesn't require surgery too, does it?"

"No, of course not," Mario assured. "Just a little stitching up with a little help from Master Hand's technology, and you'll be good as new. As this is my area of expertise, I suppose I should leave the surgery to you three."

Samus nodded. She motioned at Peach and Zelda. "Come on, let's get ready. Peach, can you move Marth to the Containment Room?"

Peach nodded, and the three women scurried about the room, busy doing their own jobs.

"You are all free to go," Mario told the onlookers. "The two injured ones will be fine, I promise it. Unless any of you are harmed?"

"Nothing a shower and a little sleep wouldn't cure," Falcon said, grinning slightly. "As long as you don't need our services anymore, we'll be leaving."

Mario waved to them as they left. As soon as the door closed, he busied himself around the room, grabbing equipment and pressing buttons. He traded in his usual white gloves for latex ones and sat down in a chair next to Ike.

"Just set your hand down onto this pad," he instructed.

Eyeing the sharp and somewhat dubious tools resting on the table next to him, Ike reluctantly set his hand on the soft pad Mario had provided, which was connected to the same machine Samus had been pushing buttons on moments earlier.

"This may, shall we say, tickle a bit," Mario mentioned. "I can numb the area down for you if you like."

Ike considered the offer. "How much is this going to 'tickle'?"

"I'll be digging needles under your skin and back up again, Ike. The Versatility Doctor will also help sow your skin back together as naturally as possible, and that may sting a bit."

"'Versatility Doctor'?"

"It's the machine that the pad your hand is resting on now is connected to. As the name implies, it does many things."

After a bit more thinking, Ike agreed to have the area numbed down. Before that, Mario cleaned the wound up and dabbed something on to help control the bleeding. Next, he turned another ray onto Ike's hand. It was only a few seconds before he realized that he couldn't feel his hand. He wiggled his index finger. Nothing.

"This won't numb all the pain," Mario explained. "You'll still feel some of it. And when this wears off, you'll have to deal with the aftereffects."

"Kind of like those Smart Shields?" Ike asked.

"Well, the technology is derived from it, but they're not the same. If this was a Smart Shield, my tools would have no affect on your skin. I couldn't do anything. This is a weaker branch of it."

Ike sighed and gave a small grin that was more like a grimace. "Well, you're the expert, so I guess I'll just leave you to this."

"And if you lose the use of your hand, you know where my room is," Mario chuckled. Upon seeing Ike's expression, he hastily added, "There's no danger of that. I was just joking."

As Mario started working on Ike's hand, the three girls came out of the room on the far end of the current one, dressed in surgical gowns, masks, and gloves. Peach punched in a code on the thick door of the Containment Room, and it opened up.

"You need that much protection?" Ike marveled.

"Technology can't do everything for us," Samus replied. "To get the exact results we want, we need to step in and do it ourselves. And that gets messy sometimes."

She disappeared into the Containment Room with the others and closed the door behind her. Mario sighed. "The first surgery here ever. Thankfully, it's nothing huge. Still, it's a trend we all preferred went unbroken."

For the next thirty minutes, Mario worked on Ike's hand. Occasionally, they made small talk with one another.

"Why does the Containment Room have that green energy surrounding it?" Ike asked.

"A couple of reasons, really," said Mario. "One is the reason in use now. So that nobody else in the room has to see surgery. It can get icky sometimes. Secondly, the Containment Room has literally been used sometimes to _contain_ people. It's like a cell. A temporary time-out. The green energy around it is actually a strong barrier that can repel most anything, so those contained inside couldn't escape."

"Why would you need to contain people?" Ike frowned.

"Well, there are some 'problem' people here," he continued. "Nasty sorts. Like Bowser, for instance. He's been my archenemy for a long time now. When he began acting like your typical villain, we imprisoned him in there sometimes."

"Wouldn't he just destroy all the equipment in there?"

"The prisoners are secured to the surgical table, which is also reinforced with the green energy. That table has a habit of giving people the wrong image."

_I'll bet,_ Ike thought.

After awhile, Mario sat back and sighed, his work completed. Ike lifted his hand off the pad and looked at it in the light. There was a very faint scar where he had been cut, along with some stitches. According to Mario, they'd have to take them back out again after some days.

"You don't have to worry about Marth," Mario told Ike as he gazed at the Containment Room. "The simulations we've gone through are quite realistic. It shouldn't be hard to get that piece of shrapnel out."

"Do surgeries usually take this long?"

"Yes. Actually, with our technology, it will be quicker than most surgeries. He'll be fine. Trust me. I'm a doctor."

They both laughed at that. "Thanks for patching me up...doctor."

"No problem! I would tell you that I hoped to see you here again, but that would technically be a bad thing."

"That is true."

Exhausted and feeling a little more pain in his hand as the numbness wore off, he decided to head for the kitchen area and see if he could get something to eat.

The kitchen was very large and rectangular. The marble floor had been traded in for a classic checkered-black-and-white design. The walls were all cream-colored, giving the kitchen a very homey appearance. On the left side of the room was a counter with napkins, silverware, plates, cups, and all the other eating essentials. A machine sat in the corner, which apparently dispensed food.

To his surprise, he found half the academy in the kitchen as well.

"Is he alright?" Link asked.

All eyes were turned on Ike expectedly. He felt like he was about to give a speech. He hated giving speeches.

"Well...uh...yeah, Samus, Zelda, and Peach are all performing surgery on him now. He'll be fine," he said, echoing Mario's words.

"What happened?" said Ness.

"Pretty much just what Samus said. We were looking for a safe, isolated area to teleport..." Ike tried to remember the details. "Some thugs jumped us, and we got into a fight. They had a huge guy among them who got to Marth. After we took care of them, we warped back here."

"What happened to Marth?" Pit probed.

_Ah, geez..._ "Well, he got kicked into a wall. Broke a few ribs, had a piece of shrapnel lodged in him. But he'll be fine. There's no need to worry." _Apparently._ "Does anybody know where I can get some water?"

Link pointed to a water dispenser in the corner. Ike gave him a grateful nod, grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and downed it in two gulps. Refreshed, he plopped down at Link's table.

"Have you all been waiting here to hear the word on Marth?" Ike asked.

"Half that, half socializing with others," Link responded. "Most of us were pretty concerned. Even Bowser."

_That sounds unlike him,_ Ike thought, picturing the gruff, villainous Bowser. He took Link's word for it and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. "What time is it?"

"According to the clock," said Luigi, who was also at the table, "almost nine p.m."

"It's been quite a day," Ike remarked.

"That it has been," Luigi agreed.

The next day was dedicated to getting to know how things worked. It was the day matches could be fought, which excited most of the fighters. In the kitchen, various people talked to each other about who they were going to fight, what they were going to do, and, in some cases, how they were undefeatable and how they pitied the poor soul who challenged them.

Ike wasn't sure who to fight. He overheard the occasional person talking about challenging "the new guy in the cape," and a few fingers were pointed at him, which Ike took as a good sign. Did he really look that tough?

"I'm taking on that turtle dude first," Pit was saying. "What's-his-name, Bowser. Before this day is over, he and I are gonna scrap."

"I hope you've thought it out thoroughly," Ike replied. "And that you've written your will."

"Hey!"

"Kidding."

"Who are you fighting?"

Ike exhaled sharply. "Me? I don't really know. Whoever asks first, I guess."

He was wearing a variant of the old tunic and cape he had arrived in. Master Hand had provided near-carbon copies of everyone's initial outfits, only with switched-up color schemes. Ike was currently wearing a purple tunic with a bright red cape which had struck his fancy. Pit had donned a black version of his old outfit, calling himself the "Angel of Death."

"What are you going to be tomorrow?" Ike had asked him.

"The Angel of Whatever I'm Wearing Tomorrow."

Breakfast consisted of pancakes, bacon, sausages, biscuits, fruit, bagels, doughnuts, croissants, various cereals, and waffles, of which Ike had collected at least one of each and had gone back for fourths. Upon passing by Ike carrying back his latest batch, Peach had commented that she was surprised he wasn't the size of Bowser.

"What else are you doing today besides challenging every last member of the academy?" Ike asked Pit.

"Resting up for the next battle."

"Come on, there's more to the academy than that. I've heard there's a Target Test, a library, a-"

"Excuse me," a gentle voice said behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Ike turned around and saw Marth. "If you're not planning on battling anybody else, I'd like to have a one-on-one swordfight with you."

Ike studied Marth up and down. He was clean, tidy, and showed no outward signs of having been violently kicked into a wall the day before. Still, Ike was concerned.

"Are you sure you're ready for that?" he asked. "Broken ribs and all? Won't that just reopen the wounds?"

"Samus and her team did a good job on me," Marth replied. "I barely feel a thing. They weren't very pleased with me wanting to fight so soon after the attack, but I don't want to miss out on all the fighting. So..."

Ike nodded. "Sure. You asked first, anyway. When are we going to fight?"

Marth considered it for a moment. "11:00. We can go over the adjustments to the rules and the standard procedure then. Until then...keep your sword sharp, mercenary."

"And yours as well, Prince Marth."

He smiled and headed for the counter. On his way there, Peach told him, "You're lucky you didn't arrive any later, or Ike would have gobbled up his fifth plateful."

"I believe it's a compliment to your fine cooking," said Marth.

Peach beamed at him. _Proud of her cooking,_ Ike thought. _Though by the looks of things, she's not the only cook._

Throughout breakfast, Ike had spied some of the other academy members busily bringing out more dishes and helping along the meal. The three cooks he saw were Peach, Zelda, and, ironically, Donkey Kong, who was a large ape. When Peach had her back turned, Donkey Kong would sometimes sneak fruit into his mouth, then hold his hands innocently behind his back when she turned around again.

After breakfast, which, for Ike, ended at 10:38 (he slept late, which wasn't unusual), he decided to check out the Target Test. He had already secured fights with Marth, Link, King Dedede (who Snake insisted was a penguin), Capt. Falcon, and, of course, Pit. He also thought Mr. Game and Watch might have challenged him to a fight, but he couldn't understand the short, flat man's beeping and sign language. He'd had to walk away without giving Mr. Game and Watch a satisfactory answer.

An elevator-of-sorts right next to the Teleporter led to the Target Test areas. According to Master Hand, since there had been fighters in the last generation who had attempted to sneak into other members' test areas when they weren't supposed to, he had created five Target Tests which anybody could compete in. Supposedly, the higher up the number, the harder the test. Ike looked forward to it, but decided to start with number 1. He hit the appropriate buttons on the side of the "elevator" which would take him to the first Target Test. (There were instructions for using it on the side.) Rather than warping like the Teleporter, it physically moved to another destination.

When the elevator opened, he was staring at a peaceful, blue-sky meadow. Relics of stone hung in the air, suspended by some unseen force. And scattered about the field, also floating above the ground, were 10 large blue targets.

The timer started the moment he left the elevator.

Wielding Ettard, he lunged through the air, slicing through targets as he followed instinct, the targets breaking into pieces automatically as he hit them. He discovered the Smart Shield was in effect as he jumped twenty feet from a stone ledge to the ground below and suffered no damage. Pleased, he rushed to the last target, which was at the top of a stone shaft. Acting on an impulse, he kicked off the front wall and swung his sword as high as he could. A mechanical voice yelled "Complete!" as the last shards fell to the ground.

Ike wandered back to the steel box he had come from and checked his time. 20:19. Roughly twenty seconds.

He listened to the wind blowing past the box behind him for a moment.

_I can do better than that._

After three more attempts, he had lowered his time down to 17:58. He was sweating, but he enjoyed it. He would have stayed longer, but it was already eleven o' clock, and Marth was probably waiting for him. He pressed the appropriate buttons in the steel box and let it take him back.

When the doors opened, he saw Marth waiting for him in front of the Teleporter.

"Did you just try the new Target Tests?" he asked.

Ike nodded. "The first one, anyway. I started to get addicted to it, but I decided I shouldn't make you wait."

"I haven't tried any of the new Target Tests before. I haven't even seen them. Was it good, the first one at least?"

"Pretty good. It was challenging. They're supposed to get harder as they go on, right? What're they going to throw in next, lions?"

Marth opened up the Teleporter and stepped inside. Ike followed him in. "Not lions, but I've heard there are traps and such. Some of the targets also move, and they get smaller. Part of the trick is to learn where all the traps are and when each target will arrive where, then create a strategy surrounding it."

"Almost sounds like battlefield tactics."

"I'd know a lot about that."

"Same here."

Marth sighed and leaned against the wall. "I really just want a one-on-one swordfight, so...it would make sense to have a 1-stock match in a relatively safe and normal arena. Final Destination fits the bill perfectly."

"What's '1-stock'?" Ike asked.

"'Stock' is a term used to indicate how many times you can return to the arena after getting knocked off. The way you win or earn points is by beating down on your opponent until you knock them off the arena. You could think of it as a glorified 'King of the Hill.'"

Marth entered in some more information, and they waited as the Teleporter warped them to their destination. Final Destination.

To Ike's surprise, Final Destination was a flat rectangle of a platform about twenty feet long and twelve feet wide. It floated in midair. Looking over the edge, Ike couldn't see a bottom. It was an endless abyss that stretched on forever.

"What happens if someone with only one stock left gets knocked off the edge here?" Ike wondered aloud.

"They get transferred to the stands floating off to the side, where they can either leave or watch the remainder of the fight."

"What happens if this transfer system fails?"

"There are 'backup systems'-energy shields and the like-that are supposed to catch fighters. It's safe."

Marth walked to the other end of Final Destination and unsheathed his sword. "I haven't had a decent swordfight in a long time. I hope I haven't gotten rusty. Remember, you can show your full potential here. No need for wooden swords or careful maneuvers."

Ike unsheathed Ettard and held it at his side. "The Smart Shields are in effect, right?"

Marth whacked his wrist with Falchion. "As you can see."

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

Ike ran forward and swung his sword in a slash at Marth's chest. The other swordsman parried the move and countered with a slash of his own.

They continued their fierce duel for close to twenty minutes, both sides obviously enjoying the chance to let themselves go. It took awhile to actually wear each other down enough to get them close to toppling over the edge.

_He's good,_ Ike thought. _I didn't expect any less. This is something I can really look forward to._ He wondered how the other Swordsmen thought.

Ike appeared to be physically stronger than Marth. That, coupled with his sword size, started to knock Marth off balance. Right as he thought he had his opponent, the prince made a deft swipe at his chest. Unable to react fast enough, Ike was knocked to the other end of Final Destination.

_Looks like the cost of dulled pain and physical protection is a farther launch,_ Ike realized. He didn't know Smart Shields could do that. He didn't have long to think about it as Marth lunged forward, stabbing at his chest. Ike stood up, knocked the blow aside, and spun around, swinging his sword. Marth turned with his opponent's spin, but his balance waned. The subsequent strike from Ike's sword knocked him off his feet and over the edge of the arena.

For a moment, Ike thought about bending over the edge and catching him; after all, what was below him but an abyss? He knew he'd be silly for doing it, though, so he let the swordsman fall.

A few moments later, he saw Marth appear in the stands to his right. The prince gave a wave, then pointed to the exit to indicate he was leaving to the lobby. Ike nodded to show he understood, then fiddled around with the white bracelet on his arm to warp back to to Teleporter.

They met each other again outside the Teleporter. Marth extended a hand, which Ike shook. "Good battle," he commented. "Who taught you?"

"My father," said Ike. "The finishing touches were put on by my deputy commander, and the rest I learned through experience. Mostly, though, it was my father."

"He must be an excellent fighter, then," Marth praised.

"Well, he's dead now."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

The two of them walked back upstairs, where a handful of other members were talking, practicing in the wide-open space, or sitting around the tables situated next to the pillars. Marth sat down at an unoccupied table and offered a chair to Ike, who accepted it.

"Are you enjoying your stay so far at the Super Smash Bros. Academy?" Marth asked.

Ike nodded. "It was rather sudden when I left, so I was a little worried at first, but it's not bad so far."

Marth laughed. "When Master Hand asked me, he gave me some time to think about it. Kirby, though, is...a little out there."

Ike thought about what else to ask. "Why is that arena called Final Destination? It makes it sound ominous."

"It's because when somebody is challenged by Master Hand to go through the 'Classic Mode,' which you'll learn about later, Final Destination was the last arena, where the fighter would have to fight Master Hand. It was literally the final destination. The arena was created by Master Hand himself." Marth seemed to go deep into thought, considering something. Finally, he continued, "The Final Destination we fought on wasn't the original one, though. Actually, it's the third model. The first one was used during the First Generation, and for the Second Generation Master Hand improved on it. Then it got destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Ike frowned. "How?"

Marth sighed and gave Ike a small smile. "Be prepared for a long story. The kind of story you'd expect to find in a fictional piece of literature." He thought about where to begin before he continued. "I guess it started when Master Hand announced something he called the 'Ultimate Tournament.' Every now and then, tournaments will be held here, and whoever comes out the victor earns a large sum of money. Not everybody has to participate, though. Everybody signed on for this one. The Linking Dimension currency is called a Smash Coin. You can buy things here using Smash Coins and even convert them into your own world's currency."

Ike thought of his poor mercenary company. It could definitely use some more money. They were barely getting by as it was.

"The Ultimate Tournament's reward was one million Smash Coins," Marth explained. Ike's eyes widened at that. No wonder everybody had signed on. "The tournament was progressing smoothly until one of our members reported that his weapons went mysteriously missing. He had already lost the tournament, so he didn't need them to fight. Back then, it was mostly just gossip. Nobody paid a huge deal of attention to it. But later, one of our members disappeared."

The story was taking a sinister turn already. "Who?" Ike asked.

"His name was Roy. He was here for the Second Generation but decided not to come back for the Third. He was a former Swordsman. Anyway, more weapons from fighters who lost continued to go missing, and later, Link and Zelda disappeared as well. Samus and I led a secret investigation into the events, and we eventually came to the conclusion that Bowser was the one who was responsible for all the havoc."

"Bowser? If he committed all these crimes, why was he invited back?"

"Because therein lies the problem. He didn't. Samus and I defeated him and imprisoned him in the Containment Room, but it later came to light that the true culprit was still out there, and we had gotten the wrong guy. At that point, it was almost too late. At the last moment, Samus discovered where Roy, Link, and Zelda had been placed, but when I arrived, she had been beaten by the culprit and trussed up like the rest of them. We then learned that the true villain was a Second Generation fighter named Ganondorf. Like Bowser, he was also a madman where he came from, but where Bowser is often more of a bully, Ganondorf was pure evil. We learned that he intended to send one arena, called Battlefield, into another, Final Destination, which would create an explosion huge enough to kill everybody in the academy. Doing so would eliminate all kinds of people who could stop him in his future plans. He had also taken control of the creation of Master Hand and Crazy Hand, the Wire Frames, and used them as an army against us."

"Wait, back up a moment," said Ike. "My head's already kind of spinning, but I'll just ask a few basic questions. Who's Crazy Hand?"

"Master Hand refers to him as his 'brother,'" Marth explained. "Master Hand is the left hand, Crazy Hand the right. As his name implies, he is not...stable. That's why Master Hand usually doesn't keep us around him. It was mostly Crazy Hand who created the Wire Frames."

"And who were they?"

"Virtual bodies created by energy-fueled wires. They serve as emotionless enemies to be faced in special challenges. They've now been replaced by Alloys, or so I've heard. Ganondorf corrupted the energy supporting Battlefield, which somehow gave him control over the Wire Frames, as the energy between the two was connected. Back to the story...I fought Ganondorf on Final Destination to make sure he didn't escape, and to prevent the entire academy being vaporized, Mewtwo-that's another Second Generation fighter-and Zelda used their powers to send Final Destination away. The two arenas eventually collided, killing Ganondorf, and I leaped off at the last second. Mewtwo saved me from falling to death, which is why I'm here today."

Ike maintained the blank look he had given Marth for the last minute or so. "Wow. And so, Master Hand created another Battlefield and Final Destination, which is how we could fight on it...right?"

Marth nodded. "He gathered up the remnants of the energy left behind from the explosion, got Crazy Hand to add his own energy to a new Battlefield, and remade the two arenas, mostly with their own energy."

Somewhat humorously, Ike asked, "And does this kind of thing happen all the time here?"

"Definitely not."

The rest of the day was extremely busy. In between fights, Ike would rest, sometimes reading in the library, sometimes lying down on his bed. He discovered that, after falling past the "blast lines" and returning to the arena, his energy returned, allowing him to fight nonstop. Still, it was emotionally and physically exhausting, so he had to periodically rest. By dinner, everybody, not just him, was slumping in their chairs, too tired to even insult their former opponents (in some members' cases). Dinner was a little simpler, probably because the cooks were as tired as the other fighters. Ike had no problem with that.

He went to bed at 10:31 PM, satisfied with the way the day had went. Tomorrow, though, he was going to take it a bit easier. Maybe relax in the library...that was a nice thought...

Around midnight, he woke up to find a man with a gun standing over him beside his bed.


	7. Chapter 6: The Raid

The man didn't seem to notice that Ike was awake, so he had time to leap out of bed, stumble over a chair, and quickly scramble to his feet. At this point, the man had his gun trained on him.

_Somewhere behind me is my sword,_ Ike thought, feeling the shelf behind him. _I don't dare turn around and look for it, though._

"Who are you?" Ike demanded, stalling for time. The man didn't answer.

It was too dark to see who it was. He couldn't tell if this was a bad prank from one of the other members or if some stranger had honestly sneaked into his room and attempted to shoot him. Then again, if his goal was to shoot him, he'd have done it by now. So what did he want?

"This isn't a game," Ike said firmly. "Turn on the light. Let me see your face."

Instead, the man stepped forward, raising his right hand, which was clenched around something. It looked like one of those medical tools down at the Recovery Room. A tube filled with liquid that had a long, sharp needle at the end of it. According to Zelda, those things were typically used to drug people or inject them with strange things. Ike didn't want to know what would happen to him if he got injected.

Ike sidestepped the tool as it came down and gave the man a backfist to the face. Now facing the shelf, he could see Ettard. As he reached for it, the man stepped in the way and stabbed at him again. Ike jumped back at the last second. He felt the needle only just puncture his skin, but hopefully not deep enough to inject.

Angry, Ike grabbed the chair he had stumbled over and swung it at the man's head. He blocked it using both his gun and his needle, then kicked Ike in the chest. _More close-combat-trained fighters,_ Ike grumbled inwardly. _The moment I get back home, I'm going to demand more self-defense training sessions._

The man seized on Ike's vulnerability and dove for a third strike. He kicked the man in the gut with both feet, sending him hurtling to the bed. Wasting no time, Ike rushed to the shelf, grabbed Ettard, and faced the man once more. Now that he had a huge sword in his hands, the man seemed to think twice about diving in to stab him. Ike swung the flat side of the blade against his head. He didn't want to kill him-he could use the information this man had. Besides, the law could deal with him...wherever the law was. The man was too slow to dodge it and was knocked onto the floor. Readjusting his grip on Ettard, Ike jumped over him, sat down, pressed the hilt against the man's throat, grabbed the other end with his free hand, and squeezed, choking the life out of him. The man struggled to stab him with the needle-Ike kicked it out of his hand.

"Tell me who you are!" growled Ike. The man showed no sign of giving in, so he continued his choking. After a few more suspenseful seconds, the man went limp. Ike cautiously withdrew the hilt from around his neck. He didn't know if he killed him or not. Killing him wasn't his intention.

_Master Hand needs to know about this,_ he decided. He grabbed the needle and, knowing he didn't have a whole lot of time before the man woke up, ran for the door and opened it.

As soon as he opened it, he realized his danger and closed it to a mere crack. All around the hallway-going up the stairs, sneaking into rooms, lurking about-were more strangers. Since the hallway was lit, he could catch a glimpse of what they looked like. Men and women alike were dressed all in black, wearing black jumpsuits, black boots, and black leather gloves. They made no effort to disguise who they were, Ike noted. And they were certainly not academy members.

_What is going on here?_ he wondered.

When he decided it was safe, he stepped out of his room and made his way down the hall. He wasn't sure where he was going, or if it was even a smart idea, but he had to get to the root of the problem and put a stop to it.

The door on his right opened, and another garbed man stepped out. Seizing on his surprise, Ike elbowed him in the face, hit him in the gut with the hilt of his sword, and finished it with a fist to the back of the neck. He kicked the man back into the room he came from and shut the door. He would check on the man's poor victim later.

He cautiously tiptoed down the stairs and peered around the corner. Not as many people were in the lobby-maybe two or three. As they weren't doing anything important-looking and had somewhat haughty expressions on their faces, he guessed they were people of higher rank. Perhaps he could wrangle a few answers out of them...

There were two men and a woman. The first man looked a bit older and had graying hair. The second man was fairly young, had brown hair, and looked too smug with his position for his age. The woman looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties and had long red hair kept in a ponytail. All were garbed in the usual black, but had badges on the upper-left part of their chests.

Taking on all three would be a suicidal idea, so Ike concluded that he would have to distract some of them somehow. There was nothing handy that he could use to lure them somewhere else without giving away his own position, though. Was there? He looked at the needle in his hand. Yes, it might work. One wrong move, though, and he was dead. When he thought nobody was looking, he threw the tool against the wall of the stairway in front of him.

"What was that?" the younger male said.

"We won't know until we check," the elder replied. "Could be one of ours. Could be one of theirs. Could be nothing at all. Ignoring things like this often proves fatal."

"I'll go check it out," the redheaded female told them. He could hear her walking towards his spot, although the sound was faint. Evidently, their boots were created to be rather silent. Ike readied his sword.

As soon as she came around the corner, Ike clapped a hand over her mouth and dragged her behind the wall with him. Yes, the other two had doubtlessly seen it, but he could use her as a hostage. Doing so went against his nature, but he could see it as his only way to survive at the moment.

"I want you to answer some questions for me," Ike whispered into her ear. He took her gun and placed it on the floor. Removing his hand from her mouth and replacing it around her arms to restrain her, he pressed Ettard against her throat. "For starters, what are you guys doing in here? What do you want with us?"

"You honestly think I'm going to answer?" she replied sarcastically. "You're as good as beaten at this point, anyway. Disturbing a room with three Admins in it...do you _want_ to make things worse for you and your friends?"

Before Ike could answer, the voice of the elder male called to him. "Whoever you are, you had better come out from behind that wall with our Admin. Disobedience will not go unpunished, you know."

Pressing Ettard even more firmly against her throat, Ike stepped out and held her in front of him. "Listen, I don't know who you guys are," he began, "but I need to know why you and your guys are sneaking around a place that doesn't belong to you and threatening the wellbeing of the members here. It goes against my nature, but if you force me to, I'll execute the girl here if you don't cooperate."

The younger male laughed. "You're ordering _us_ around? How stupid are you?"

Before Ike could respond, the female Admin kicked him in between his legs, removed his sword from around her neck, and threw him to the ground. The other two Admins were now on the ceiling from his perspective.

"Well, if he's going to walk straight into our hands," she said, "I won't compain. He makes this interesting, anyway."

The two other Admins walked towards him. The female Admin put a foot on his chest and another on his sword hand. The younger male bent down, grabbed him by the hair, and examined him.

"Having a huge sword doesn't make you invincible, buddy," he mocked. "The members of our organization, Horizon, are promoted to Admins based on their abilities in certain areas. Hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, research...it doesn't matter. Picking a fight with one is suicidal, and you picked a fight with three. Congratulations; you've won the Idiot of the Year Award." His expression became more serious. "Well, I guess it'd be smart to drug him and put him with the others. Tina? Fred?"

The redheaded female, who was probably Tina, heaved him onto his feet as the elder, probably Fred, pulled out another needle. Tina reached for his sword to take it away; however, Ike had already made up his mind. He swung Ettard horizontally, giving Fred a minor cut across his belly but cutting deep across the younger Admin's chest. With a look of surprise and a spray of blood, he fell backwards. Before Tina could react, he elbowed her hard in the face, knocking her off of him. Fred was still up and reaching for his gun. Ike stabbed him through the shoulder, then turned and smacked Tina across the head with the flat part of his sword. He darted as fast as he could from the room, heading for the Meeting Room. Behind him, he heard Tina shout, "Kreta! Are you alright?"

_So Too-Smug-For-My-Britches is named Kreta,_ Ike thought. _I don't think Master Hand will be there, but the Meeting Room is the best thing I have to go on right now. I wonder just how much damage has been done so far?_

A laser burned a hole through the chair he just ran past. Thinking the Admins were firing on him, he looked back. Instead, he found some of the grunts shooting at him. He had been spotted.

Acting on an impulse, he threw his head back and screamed. He didn't know how many people were drugged and captured, but he wanted to wake up those who weren't. He couldn't free the academy on his own.

The Meeting Room was dark, as before. He jumped over the ledge separating the seating area from Master Hand's area and looked around. "Master Hand!" he shouted. There was no response. _Dang it, this was useless._

Knowing some grunts were tailing him, he turned back to the doorway. As soon as he reached it, the first woman came through. He slashed Ettard forward, incapacitating her. He slashed again and cut the next man who came through. Aware that there was a third pursuer, he raised his sword and brought it down where he thought the next man would come around. He was successful and cut the man from his right shoulder to his chest.

Back in the lobby, he heard more shouts and screams. His "call" a moment ago had woken up more fighters. He could already hear more slashing, shooting, and striking going on both upstairs and downstairs. The Admins were gone, presumably for medical care. A grunt near the bottom staircase raised her gun to fire at Ike, but before she could fire, she was zapped with electricity and crumpled. Pikachu landed lightly in front of her.

"Thanks, Pikachu!" Ike shouted. "Are the others okay?"

The mouse Pokemon gave him a somewhat sorrowful expression. Ike got the message.

"That's too bad, but we can't quit!" he called. "No matter the odds, we _will_ win! Fight with everything you've got!"

Pikachu's red cheeks crackled with electricity itching to be released. He spotted an opponent up the next staircase and darted after it. Concluding that looking for Master Hand at this point was futile, he followed Pikachu upstairs to help.

On the next floor, Meta Knight and Bowser were battling a handful of grunts. Bowser was protected by his shell and tough hide, and Meta Knight was too quick to hit. Ike disarmed two nearby grunts who didn't notice him as Meta Knight, Pikachu, and Bowser all one by one felled the rest.

"Well, if it's not Blue Hair Number 2!" Bowser growled, obviously riled up. "Who are these weirdos, anyway? I didn't invite them!"

"Neither did I," Ike replied. "I'm wondering how they even got here. We can figure the details out later, though. Let's get them out of here for now!"

As Bowser and Meta Knight ventured downstairs to face new opponents, Ike and Pikachu began searching the rooms for stragglers. Ike would open the door, and Pikachu would bolt in. For the first five rooms, they found nobody. On the sixth, two men were busy loading Luigi onto a floating stretcher. Pikachu paralyzed them while Ike took them out.

"Luigi, are you okay?" he yelled, leaning over him. The man in green didn't respond. "Hey, Luigi, wake up!" _He must be drugged. It'll be useless trying to wake him up._ He picked up Luigi, slung him over his shoulders, and continued searching the rooms. Fortunately, the remaining rooms were empty.

Back downstairs, an all-out war had broken out. Meta Knight, Pit, Lucario, Snake, R.O.B., and Sonic were all fighting off another wave of grunts (_Will they never end?_ Ike thought). Bowser, Mario, and the younger Link were all either unconscious or too wounded to fight. Although it was clear the enemy didn't want to kill any of them, seriously injuring them didn't seem to be off-limits. Pikachu dashed to a grunt about to inject Pit, whose back was turned, and electrocuted him. Ike joined the fray, taking out one man before he noticed anything and injuring another woman as she shot at him. He hissed as the laser bit through his shoulder.

After awhile, it became apparent that the lasers also had paralyzing qualities. He had trouble moving his upper left arm and shoulder, which didn't hamper his ability to fight much, but still concerned him. Besides, they were still outnumbered, and Luigi was getting heavy on his back. After they had a brief respite from enemies, he set Luigi down gently behind a chair to shield him from danger. Rubbing his semi-paralyzed shoulder, he continued the fight.

To his left, he noticed a man and woman carting Peach out on a floating stretcher. As the heroes all turned one by one to look, the grunts pulled out their paralyzing guns and fired on them. Meta Knight flashed forward, too fast to keep track of, and slashed at them. Sonic and Pit ran to the academy entrance to deal with more enemies. Pit readied his bow and shot three arrows faster than should be normal, knocking three grunts off their feet. Ike, meanwhile, ran to the unconscious Peach's side, lifted her off the stretcher, and looked for a safe place to put her. He didn't think there would be enough room by Luigi. Snake gave him cover as he found a spot underneath a table and set her there.

Lasers tore through the air behind him, so many that he wondered if there was a whole platoon of grunts that had just arrived. He turned to see what the commotion was and was shocked to find that there were only about two grunts left, but four robots, which were the source of the lasers. He was unable to stop two from tearing into his right thigh and left side. He crumpled to the floor. He didn't see what happened to the others, but he hoped they had been luckier than him. The lasers continued to fire over him. One of the grunts ran forward, apparently unafraid of being shot himself. Sure enough, the robots adjusted their aims to avoid him.

Although the lasers hurt, Ike found that they weren't incapacitatingly so. He suspected that their main goal was to paralyze enemies and cause them some pain rather than actually killing them. _If that's the case, I should be fine physically._

When the grunt came in range, Ike forced himself up. The grunt stood where he was and held his gun in front of him. Apparently, he misjudged the distance between them, as Ike swung his sword quickly, cut his hand, and disarmed the man. He pressed his attack and cut him across the chest. As soon as the man fell down, he dropped to his belly himself to avoid being shot and crawled to the stairway. He saw Snake and Pit hiding behind chairs for cover. Without any projectiles to fire, Ike was useless behind a chair. He needed to recover either upstairs or downstairs. As the downstairs had more room, he decided he would go there. A laser hit the ground next to his hand, and he crawled quicker.

When he reached the stairway, he stood back up with some effort and lumbered down. He lost his balance halfway down and tumbled the rest of the way. _Great, now more of me hurts. That's just what I need._

The only person in the wide room was a blonde-haired woman who looked like she was watching for any academy members to show up. When Ike arrived, she raised her gun and fired at him. Putting his faith in his sword, Ike held Ettard in front of him and blocked the laser. Just as he suspected, the laser was strong enough to easily sear through flesh and clothes, but still too weak to penetrate metal. He blocked two more in this manner before reaching her and cutting her down.

He put the point of his sword on the ground and leaned on it, panting. He needed healing, time to cure his injuries and paralysis. And by the looks of things, they were fighting a losing battle. _We can't lose here,_ Ike thought desperately. _Not two days after the Super Smash Bros. starts back up. How can this be happening?_

Footsteps came down the stairs. Ike slowly turned and faced them. Five or six grunts all piled down, guns trained on him. Although he didn't want to admit it, there was no way he could defeat them. He was weakened, outnumbered, and morale was low.

"This is the guy who's been the proverbial thorns in our butts this lovely evening?" one of the male grunts said lazily. "The one who shouted his head off and woke up half the place? The one who turned our quiet operation into a nightmare?"

"The very one," a female sighed. It surprised Ike, the sheer number of females in Horizon. They rivaled the number of men. Ike was used to armies full of men, and it still caused him to twinge inwardly to have to hurt a woman. Still, he had done it to a few pegasus knights in the past, and he knew he had to do it to stay alive now.

"You know, after all this," the same male said, "I say we just shoot him and be done with it. It would be proper punishment after all he's done for _us_."

"Hey, you know that's against our orders," the female admonished. "We'd get in serious trouble for that."

"We could just say he was killed by accident in the skirmish," he suggested. "Admit it, don't you find it tempting? He's the reason some of us have even _died._ I'm pretty ticked at that, so I say screw our orders."

With that, the man adjusted a switch on his gun and aimed it at Ike's head. _He's not kidding, either,_ Ike thought. _And my body won't move. Is this really the end?_

The look in the man's eye told him he was serious. He grinned slightly as he pulled on the trigger.

"I believe my orders were explicit," said Pane.

He was there. Pane. Before the man could even fire, Pane had put a hand on the grunt's gun and lowered it. Even Ike, who had been facing the stairway, hadn't seem him enter. It was as if he had blinked and suddenly he was there.

"Your...orders?" Ike repeated slowly. "Pane? You're the leader of Horizon?"

"I see somebody spilled information early, as well," he added. Despite the situation, he seemed as polite and happy as ever. "Yep, that's me. I'll get back to you in a second." He turned his head slightly to the grunt who had just tried to kill Ike. "As I was saying...my orders were pretty clear, as I recall. Ms. Renee, at least, seems to remember. Were you dozing off during the briefing, perhaps?"

"No, sir!" the grunt replied, clearly scared.

"Ah, well. We shall have a talk when this is all over."

"What do you want?" Ike asked, still leaning heavily on his sword.

"What do I want? Well, currently, I have my sights set on taking this building. I'll set another goal after that."

"Why?" demanded Ike. "What could you possibly want? What would you gain from it?"

Pane shrugged and looked thoughtful. "More power. More knowledge. More technology. Basically, just more."

"I don't get it. Back in Samus's dimension, when you offered me that job, you seemed so..."

"Trusting?" Pane finished, raising an eyebrow.

"That's it," Ike admitted. "That's it exactly. How did you...?"

Pane grinned slightly and closed his eyes. "I used a deceptive tactic there. It's called The Deceiver's Scent. Consider it a special kind of cologne. It's illegal except for a few select government groups...and for organizations like mine who can acquire it. Those who smell it instantly trust the one who wears it. The scent somehow messes with their mind and makes them more trusting of even ridiculous offers. I wasn't 100% sure I could persuade you on my own, so I tried it out. It worked, too."

Ike remembered back to the dinner at Samus's dimension. He remembered how he felt like how he could trust Pane without having a reason why. The Deceiver's Scent had taken effect.

"Furthermore," Pane continued, "I had to choose someone hopelessly ignorant of modern technology. Ms. Aran probably would have picked up on the scent for what it was instantly."

"Ms. Aran?"

"That would be the last name of Samus."

_Oh, yeah._

"You also seemed rather polite and easily persuadable, so when you left to do your thing, I took the opportunity. All this to get here." He stared at Ike for a moment. "You really have been a bother. You've either directly or indirectly led to some of my agents' deaths; in fact, the majority of the fallen died by your blade. Still, I'm not going to kill you. Everything can just glaze over if you come quietly. I can forgive you, but my men may not be able to so easily. Turning yourself in really would be the best choice."

"You really think I'm just going to give up?" Ike spat. His limbs trembled-the paralysis had worsened a bit. "While I can still stand, I won't let you or any of your grunts run this place."

"Coming quietly and giving up are not the same thing," Pane responded. "Believe me, I have no qualms about resorting to violence to get you to submit. After all I've seen and heard of you, coupled with your weakened state, it wouldn't be hard for me to beat you."

"I'll repeat myself," Ike said forcefully. "While I still stand-"

"While you still stand?" Pane repeated.

Ike didn't even see it happen. All he knew was that pain exploded in his right leg, and he fell to the ground. Pane stood behind him.

"Oh, look," Pane said mock-surprisingly. "You're not standing anymore."

"How do you move so fast?" Ike wondered aloud. "What did you do?"

"Trade secret, and not one that I'll share with anybody anytime soon. As for that last part, I hit a nerve in your leg. Nearly pushed it to the other side of your leg, I guess you could say. So, since you won't be able to _stand_ for quite awhile, are you going to make the wise decision and come quietly?"

"No," Ike said simply.

"Wow, you're _very_ troublesome," remarked Pane. "I didn't think you'd put up this much of a fight. Not much you can do, though."

He pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like a bomb of some sort. Ike's eyes widened as he saw it.

"Don't worry, this isn't meant to hurt you," Pane assured him. "It'll knock you out and _make_ you come quietly. You've impressed me so far. I guess I've developed some sort of respect for you." Lighting it, he dropped it by Ike and walked back to the group of Horizon agents. "If you had just taken that job I offered you, this wouldn't be happening to you," he concluded.

The bomb exploded, sending lights flashing rapidly before Ike's eyes. He instantly felt lightheaded. A strange noise sounded behind him. Struggling to stay conscious, he looked backwards.

The Teleporter was glowing brighter and brighter. The bomb must have done something to the Teleporter, and Ike didn't like it. He had been told that it utilized a great deal of the Linking Dimension's dimensional energy and harnessed it to travel between worlds.

And all that energy was about to come bursting out.

The light exploded in a giant hurricane from the Teleporter, wrapping the entire academy in light. It even sounded like a hurricane, roaring and drowning out everything else. Ike felt his molecules begin to leave the world, but this time painfully. He screamed as the light enveloped him and sealed his fate.


	8. Chapter 7: A New World

Flowers...the breeze...the sun beating down on him...

Scents of the wilderness. Ike, waking up from his "sleep," didn't bother opening his eyes. He was enjoying the peace and quiet, and didn't want to ruin it all by getting up and thinking.

As he lay there, though, unwanted images forced their way back into his mind. There was Pane mocking him. Before that, he'd been scurrying all over the academy, running from people who would soon rather kill him than simply capture him like the others.

_Who am I kidding?_ he thought. _I'm supposed to be at the academy. I can't just lie here and pretend nothing happened. Come on, get up._

Slowly, he opened his eyes. A blue sky. He sat up and looked around. He didn't recognize any of it. He hadn't been at the academy long, but he knew it well enough to know that he was nowhere near the building. It was a sort of...safari. Elaborate, mushroom-shaped trees were scattered about the field. Grass grew up to one's waist. Rocky plateaus stretched off the ground in some spots.

_Was I captured after all?_ he wondered. _Did they take me somewhere else? Why would they leave me in the middle of a field?_

He heard a rustling over to his left. He whirled around from his sitting position. It was in the too-tall-for-Ike's-liking grass. Ike discovered he still had Ettard with him, resting in his hand where he'd left it. He slowly stood up and prepared his sword for a strike if he needed to use one.

Out from the grass came a creature he'd never seen before. It was roughly about as high as his knee, pink-colored, and had ears that constituted much of its height. It had a small horn on its snout. Overall, Ike thought, it looked pretty cute. It stared at him warily. _I have nothing to worry about from this creature,_ he thought, lowering his sword. _There was nothing to be concerned over after all._

A boom sounded behind him. The pink creature vanished back into the grass. _Me and my big conscious._ He turned around and raised his sword again.

The booming creature exploded from out of the grass-that was the most accurate description, Ike pondered-and skidded to a stop about fifteen feet away from him. This thing was _much_ bigger than Cute-and-Pink before it. It dwarfed him, forcing Ike to tilt his head up to look it in the eye even at that distance. It stood on two short, stubby legs. A pair of horns grew out of the top of its monstrous head. Sharp teeth protruded from its mouth, and a tail that looked powerful enough to snap him in half grew out from its brown back. It had a pouch on its belly, possibly for carrying young.

But there was no young to be found.

And Ike was looking it square in the eye.

_Thank you, Kreta, I'll gladly accept that Idiot of the Year Award now._

When the thing roared at him, he didn't bother sticking around. He turned and ran, coming up with strategies as he flew. Booming footsteps confirmed it was chasing him. He ran through the tall grass, thankfully meeting no other giant, angry monsters, and wound up overlooking a wide stretch of land, standing at the top of a steep slope. He took one look behind him at the rampaging Angry Mama Monster, then jumped onto the slope and started running down it. Halfway down, he lost his balance and started rolling. When he finally reached the bottom, he went straight to his feet and kept running.

At a safe distance, he looked behind him. The Angry Mama Monster wasn't coming down, but it didn't look finished. Ike's suspicion was confirmed when it picked up a boulder about his own height and hurled it out. He watched the boulder's aerial path carefully. It was aligned directly with him. It crashed down behind him and caught up quickly to him. Ike leapt out of the way right as it rolled where he was. He didn't want to see if the beast would chuck another one, so he wasted no time in getting back to his feet and resuming his flight.

After he figured he'd run a safe distance, he leaned against the wall of a plateau to catch his breath. _Where the heck am I? How do I get out of here? Even if civilization was close, I wouldn't know where to go. I'm desperately hoping that Mist is just going to poke me in the side, wake me up, and tell me I'm late for a meeting._

When he'd rested enough, he set off again, steering clear of the tall grass. His first goal was to find a tall object-a tree, maybe-and find a way out...if there was one. Perhaps he was smack in the middle of nowhere. He rather suspected he was.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be back here!"

A male voice caught Ike's attention. He didn't care that it was accusing him of doing something wrong-it was a potential helper. Ike looked in the direction of the voice. A man, maybe in his mid-twenties, appeared from a patch of tall grass. He wore green "official" clothing, as if he was a part of some company or organization. Ike walked toward him with relief.

"Hey, man," the official man began, "I didn't mean it like that...it's just that, you know..."

Ike realized he still had Ettard drawn and was intimidating the man. He sheathed his sword and put his hands up to show he didn't mean any harm. "It's okay. I wasn't trying to scare you. Do you know the way out of here?"

The official man sighed in relief. "Thanks. How'd you get back here, anyway? We've closed off the entrance, and it's virtually impossible to sneak in any other way."

"I wasn't in here because I was sightseeing," Ike grunted. _Then again, what am I supposed to tell him? I don't even _know_ how I got here. Well, might as well tell him the truth, or at least snippets of it._ "To be honest, I don't even know why I was in there. I woke up and I was lying in the middle of the field. Can you lead me out of here?"

The man nodded, still appearing suspicious. "Yeah, follow me. I'm Kurt, by the way."

"Ike. Thanks for your help. So, why'd you close the entrance to this place off? Actually, why do you allow people in here in the first place?"

Kurt pushed a branch out of the way. "There's actually a Kangaskhan whose lost her baby. They tend to go a little crazy when that happens, so we closed the Safari Zone until we could pacify it. Normally, this is a pretty peaceful place, and the Pokemon are all docile."

_Pokemon?_ Ike thought. _Where have I heard that term before..._ Red. Red said he was a Pokemon Trainer. Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Lucario were also Pokemon. They all came from a specific dimension. Was Ike in that dimension?

"Yeah, I had a little run-in with that thing...what did you call it? Kingiskong?"

"Kangaskhan. Did it hurt you? More importantly, did you hurt it?"

Ike shook his head. "No, I...wait, how is it more important that the thing that was trying to kill me is safe?"

Kurt gave a small laugh. "Because you'd be in all kinds of crap if you did. First of all, Kangaskhan are rare and we're trying to preserve them. Secondly, people, the Safari Zone in particular, get uptight when you hurt Pokemon without it being an actual Pokemon battle."

"I'd be in all kinds of crap if I'd let that thing have my head. But I see what you mean."

As they passed the next tree, a building came into view. "There's the entrance. We'll be out of here in a minute or so. Still, you'll have one heck of a time trying to explain why you were in the Safari Zone, at an illegal time, with a huge sword across your back."

Fifteen minutes later, that's exactly what Ike was doing.

"Let me get this straight," a female official who'd identified herself as Renee demanded in a firm voice. "You just _woke up_ in the middle of a closed-off Safari Zone, with no memory of how you got there, ran into the very Pokemon we'd been trying to protect everyone from, and escaped with the help of our ranger Kurt?"

"It's not that I have no memory of how I got there, it's just-"

"Oh, really? Do enlighten us, then, just how you wound up right in the middle of the Safari Zone."

Ike sighed. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Your story, Mr. Ike, is getting fishier than a pond full of Magikarp. Do we have to call the police to get a straight answer from you?"

Ike looked around the small room as if seeking support. It was perfectly square and contained little more than a table and some chairs. Perfect for interrogation. He wondered how many other people had been sitting where he was and what they were thinking.

"Alright, here's the deal," Ike began. "There's this guy, Pane, who attacked the academy I was staying at. In the fight, I was pushed back to the Teleporter. He threw a sort of explosive, which caused the Teleporter to act up and me to go unconscious. My guess is that the Teleporter's energy somehow brought me into the middle of that field."

Renee stared at him disbelievingly for about twenty seconds. Ike returned her gaze, hoping to somehow telepathically confirm to her that he was telling the truth. More silence. Then, she turned to the guard at the door.

"Mr. Yester, could you go get the police for me, please?"

"No, wait," Ike pleaded, "I'm telling the truth. You asked for the truth, I'm just giving it to you."

"Perhaps I could accept it as the truth if I was born yesterday," Renee replied. "But the fact is, I'm not. When the police get here, perhaps we'll get the truth from you one way or another."

Ike decided to wait in silence. There would be no persuading this woman.

"Let me in," an elderly voice outside the door said. The guard, who had not yet left the premises, opened the door. A man, probably in his sixties, came in. He was mostly bald, and a white mustache defined his face. "Renee, what's the situation? Who is this young man?"

"This man," she began, "Ike, claims he simply _woke up_ in the middle of the Safari Zone, when we had clearly locked it down, with a sword on his back and ran into trouble with the angry Kangaskhan mother."

Ike met the old man's eyes. "I had no intention of being in the Safari Zone at all, and I never wanted to cause trouble. I have no money to pay any fines, and I can't afford to be in jail at this time. My friends are in trouble, and they need my help."

"Your friends at this 'academy' you were speaking of?" Renee asked, raising an eyebrow.

The old man raised a hand to her as if to tell her to stop. "Did you hurt any of the safari Pokemon or ecosystem?"

Ike shook his head. "The worst that happened is that the Kangaskhan mother threw a boulder at me. Other than that, it should be the same as before."

The old man nodded. "I suppose if nothing happened, there's nothing to worry about, is there? This fellow seems trustworthy enough."

"Truh..." Renee looked as if somebody had punched her. "You didn't hear about his story about how a man attacked the 'academy' he was staying at, and an explosive made him teleport into the Safari Zone?"

"That's not hard to believe," the man said. "Wealthy organizations have teleporting systems. At any rate, my decision stands. This fellow is to be let go, no charges."

The knot of worry that had been bound up in Ike's stomach released itself. Renee looked ready to slap somebody. Ike stood up slowly in case they were going to demand that he sit back down again. "Thank you," he said. "I really do appreciate it."

"Think nothing of it. I'm the park director, by the way," he added, extending a hand. Ike shook it gratefully.

"Also," Ike asked, "could I have my sword back? I'll need protection where I'm going."

"Of course," the park director agreed. "Mr. Yester, could you see to it that this young man gets his sword back?"

_Too much excitement for one day,_ thought Ike. _Heck, too much excitement for one week._

By the time Ike got out, it was mid-afternoon, and he was starving. Unfortunately, having no money, he knew it would be hard to acquire decent food. _I guess maybe I have to mooch,_ he thought.

It took another thirty minutes to find somebody who would finally treat him to a meal. It was a rather magnanimous young lady, apparently upper-class, who looked about his age.

"Sorry again for having to mooch off of you," said Ike. "It's not something I would normally do, but I have-"

"Oh, don't worry about it. It makes me happy, helping you. Anyway, what do you want to eat?"

They were in a restaurant-not nearly as fancy as the one in Samus's dimension, but homey. The floor was checkered red and white, and wooden tables filled the room. Ike and Karen, the young lady treating him to a late lunch, were sitting in a booth in the corner. Ike, wearing a wardrobe evidently not seen often in the current dimension, wanted as little attention as possible.

"Um...they have fried eggs and bacon?" Ike asked.

"Yup. Order anything you want. So, are you a Gym Leader?"

The question caught Ike off guard. "A what? No."

"Really? Dragon tamer?"

"No. I'm a mercenary."

"Oh," Karen said, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, it's just...your clothes don't..."

"Oh, yeah," Ike muttered, looking himself over. "I don't really live around here, and where I come from, this is...well, not really usual attire, but not uncommon."

"Does the cape stand for something?"

"Not really. My father always wore one, and I wanted to be just like him. After that, it just stuck."

The waiter came, and they ordered their food. After he walked away, they continued talking.

"So, where do you live, anyway?" asked Karen. "Why are you all the way out here? And I'm sorry if I seem pushy or anything. If I'm going too far-"

"No, you're alright," he assured her. He thought about what to say. "I actually...I'm going to tell you the same story I told a woman named Renee at the Safari Zone, and it's going to seem stupid, but it's the truth. I actually wasn't in this dimension. I was at a building in a totally different world, and a man named Pane attacked it, thanks to my own stupidity. He did something to a teleporting device, which probably sent me here. I woke up in the Safari Zone, with no money, and ran into trouble with an angry Kangaskhan mother. Then I ran into trouble with an angry woman named Renee. After I got out, I began looking for food, which is when I met you."

Karen stared at him as if expecting him to say "Just kidding." Ike hoped he wouldn't lose her friendship so soon.

"Like I said," he continued, "you're going to think I'm nuts. And I'm not going to demand that you believe me, but I really do need a little help. I don't know what happened to my friends at the academy, but I need to find a way back to see what I can do."

"I believe you," Karen murmured.

This time, Ike was the one who looked at her as if expecting the punch line. When he didn't respond, she continued.

"You don't sound like somebody who just wants attention, and what you're saying makes sense...well, aside from traveling through dimensions," she added with a smile. "Is there anything I can do?"

Ike shrugged. "You've really done enough by feeding me. All I need now is a way back to that dimension, and by the sounds of things, you don't know much about that."

The two of them thought for a bit. After a few minutes, Karen said, "I suppose you could try the Silph Co."

Ike looked up. "The Silph Co.? What's that?"

"They're a company based in Saffron City, which is north of here. They do a lot of research into pretty much everything. They might know something. Beyond that, though, there's been a bit of shady news going on about that place. They're having little to no contact with anyone outside the building, and a lot of new characters that all wear the same suit have been reported hanging around there. Apparently, it's not Team Rocket. They're a team that took over the Silph Co. some years back, but a Trainer by the name of Red went in single-handedly and took care of them."

"Red?" Ike asked. "Brown hair, pale, wears a red cap all the time? That Red?"

"I haven't met him personally, but that sounds like the description most of us have received. He used to be the League Champion of Kanto, but he gave up that title. The name seems to ring a bell to you."

"It does." Their food arrived, so they had to break their discussion for a moment. After the waiter had left, they felt it was safe to continue. "Red was also at the academy when it was attacked."

"No kidding," she muttered. "What happened to him?"

Ike shrugged. "I never saw. I actually don't know what the conclusion of the battle even was. I'm hoping my side won, but I don't know. That's part of what I need to go find out."

"Well," Karen said after a pause, "I could take you up to Saffron City, if you want. I have nothing in particular that I'm supposed to be doing otherwise, so I've got spare time."

"You don't have a job or anything?"

"I'm a Pokemon Trainer, so I earn money by battling other Trainers."

Ike considered the offer. "While I would appreciate your assistance, it's probably a bit dangerous for you to come along. They were supposed to capture everybody at the academy, me included, without a hitch, but I messed that up. One of the grunts actually tried to flat-out disobey his orders and kill me because I made him that angry. If they learned that you helped me..."

Karen nodded. "I understand. Well, then, how about this?" She reached into her bag on the booth beside her and pulled out a map. "This is a map of the Kanto region. You can use this to get to Saffron City. Also, you should probably take this." She reached into her bag again and pulled out money.

Ike was about to refuse it and tell her it was too much for him, but in truth, he had no idea what exactly he was doing, and without money, he may very well starve to death.

"That's 1,000 PokeDollars," she explained. "That should be more than enough to get you by. If you run out, I suggest finding items and selling them at PokeMarts. You should actually be able to make a fair amount of money that way."

Ike gave her a gracious smile. "Thanks, Karen. Normally, I'd say you're doing too much, but I really do need this stuff. I'm not sure how I can repay all this."

"You can repay me by kicking those goons' butts," she said, returning the smile.


	9. Chapter 8: Companion for the Road

The young woman who had treated him to dinner and given him items to survive had directed him to an inn, where they parted ways and Ike rented a room for the night. The hotel was nothing fancy, but Ike, used to sleeping in a rather shabby fort and often on the ground with bugs to keep him company, found it suitable. His plan was to leave for that one city the woman had mentioned, whatever it was called, in the morning. He sat at the edge of his bed and unfolded the Town Map she had given him.

He was in a town called Fuchsia City, which was located in southern Kanto, the region he was currently in. If you shot an arrow straight north of Fuchsia, you would probably hit Saffron - that was the city the woman had mentioned - provided it went far enough, but no roads led straight to it. The road west of Fuchsia was labeled "Cycling Road." Ike heard that it was a steep climb up, and you were only allowed to traverse it if you had a bike. Ike didn't even know what a bike was, so that was ruled out. The eastern road led up east Kanto and eventually branched off to two different settlements, Lavender Town and Vermilion City. Vermilion City was right below Saffron, so that was where Ike was headed. It was a long journey, so he would be sure to pack well. He also heard there were a lot of Pokemon Trainers lining the path, and the more mean-spirited ones might give him trouble. Well, he had a big sword - surely nobody would challenge him when they saw he meant business.

He spent the next few hours making plans and asking questions down in the lobby. By the time it was ten o' clock, he was ready to turn in, satisfied that he had planned for every outcome.

He left early the next morning around seven o' clock. Tired as he was, time was of the essence, and he needed to reach the Linking Dimension quickly. He went to a local convenience store and loaded up food and other necessities in a pack he bought. He was unfamiliar with most of the food selections and relied mostly on beef jerky to get him through. _That_ he was at least familiar with.

When all his preparations were complete, he left Fuchsia City on the eastern road. The view was beautiful. To his right, the ocean stretched on, broken only by a distant island with a mountain on it. It was a sunny and mostly cloudless day, which only enhanced the scenery. The ground beneath his feet was soft and sandy, giving him the impression of being on a beach. He'd only seen the ocean once, but it was for a two-month stretch on a sea voyage, so he had his fill long ago. Still, he wondered what his little sister would think if he brought her here. _Maybe someday, when all this has been settled, I'll find a way to do it._

Every so often he'd have to respond to an eager Trainer's challenge, telling them he wasn't another Trainer and that he was too busy to talk. Most of them walked away with disappointed expressions. He also had to put up with delinquents on loud machines that roared by him and tried to bother him. They circled around him, occasionally reaching out and touching him when they came close enough. When he didn't acknowledge them, they laughed and rode away. From what they said, Ike got the impression that the machines they rode on were bikes. Why did they have to be so loud?

After nearly an hour or so of walking, Ike guessed, the route he was on turned sharply left, heading north. The ocean was still to his right, showing that he was on Kanto's easternmost edge. At this point, he was...1/3 of the way to Saffron, maybe? He took his Town Map out from his pack and checked. Yep, that sounded about right. No problems so far, annoying rebels aside. He continued walking, estimating his time of arrival in Saffron. He'd probably be there in another couple hours or so, making it roughly ten-thirty or eleven o' clock.

He entered a field divided up by fences, navigating his way through and eventually winding up on a dock which went out into the ocean. He hadn't seen many Pokemon so far, but being right above the water lent more sights. Large fish darted beneath the surface, and some occasionally leapt out, splashing him with water. His suspicions of the Pokemon playing with him were confirmed when the same orange fish Pokemon continuously leapt up and splashed water directly at him. It stopped when Ike held his hands out and growled at it.

Ike's journey up the docks remained pretty uneventful until he heard voices off to his left.

The docks periodically branched off to the left into small forested areas, probably where more Pokemon lived. The voices Ike heard now came from one such pocket of forest. From the best he could hear, there were two voices. The first was loud and angry, the second was curious and pleading. Although he knew he should probably ignore it and keep going, his protective nature urged him toward the voices.

"...do this all the time, do you?" the first voice yelled. "See a guy walking innocently along, and you just chuck a ball at him!"

"But...but I thought you were a Pokemon!"

"What are you, nuts? Do I _look_ like a Pokemon to you?"

"Would it help any if I said yes?"

_Wait a minute,_ thought Ike. _That first voice sounds familiar..._ Young and energetic, coming out of puberty... He quickened his walk and rounded a tree.

"You'd better learn to check your target before you throw stuff!" Pit shouted. "See this mark on my forehead? It hurts!"

"But you've got wings!" the second voice, a young Pokemon Trainer, protested. "Are you sure you're not a new species of Pokemon?"

"Pit's a Pokemon? I've got to see this," Ike said, standing right behind Pit.

Pit whirled around in surprise. The anger melted off his face the moment he saw who was talking to him. "Ike? What the heck! I thought I was all alone out here!" He punched Ike in the shoulder, grinning ear to ear.

The Trainer, relieved to be free from the wing-boy's wrath, quietly walked back to the docks. Pit didn't notice him, for which Ike was thankful.

"What are you doing here?" asked Pit.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. I woke up in the middle of a safari south of here. I met up with a young woman who lent me some money and items."

"Do you have any food?"

"Yeah, I've got some in my - "

Before Ike could finish his sentence, Pit ripped the bag off his back and tore through its contents. He resurfaced with a bag of beef jerky, ripped it open, and wolfed down the dried meat. A short time later, Pit sat down on the grass, satisfied but still hungry for more.

"So how'd you get here?" Ike asked him.

Pit shrugged. "Woke up in the middle of the ocean. Swam to the docks, lay there like a lump for a bit. I got up and searched for food, and then that kid threw something at me, thinking I was a 'Pokemon' or something." Pit straightened up and looked around. "Hey, where _is_ that kid, anyway?"

"Never mind. But look, I've got a lead. I'm heading to Saffron City, and there should be some clues there. If we're lucky, we'll get back to the academy and see what's going on."

"Seriously? Sweet! Show me the way!"

Ike grabbed his map from the ground and showed where they were and where Saffron was. Excited, Pit leapt into the air and started to fly away before realizing Ike had no wings. It bummed the young angel that he couldn't reach his destination quickly.

"I guess it's no big deal," Pit mused, walking alongside Ike down the dock. "I'm not a good flier. That's one ironic thing about me, captain of the Holy Guard. An angel who can't fly. Not well, at least."

"So you'll be joining us earthbound creatures," said Ike. "Don't worry, we should be there in...soon. I kind of lost track of time."

They chatted back and forth on the route, wondering what happened at the academy and what they were going to do in various scenarios. Ike filled him in on what had happened to him and why they were heading to Saffron. They continued on their path like this until it reached the edge of Lavender Town, where they had to turn left and head to Vermilion.

"You know what?" Pit muttered, glaring at the umpteenth stranger, who in turn was staring wide-eyed at Pit's appearance. "We need to get some decent clothes or something so everybody stops staring at us. Did that lady give you any clothes?"

Ike sighed. "No, but with the money we have, it would be an easy matter to walk into a store and buy some."

"You're a weirdo with a cape and I'm a freak with wings. We need to do something about that."

They soon reached Vermilion City, which was a settlement of decent size bordered by water. A harbor lay off to the left, lined with a few ships and small boats. Telling Pit to lay low, Ike went in search of the nearest convenience store. He asked a elderly man where he would find clothes and followed the man's directions.

"Wow, interesting fashion sense," the clerk said, looking Ike up and down. With her blonde ponytail and classy clothes, she certainly looked like she knew a lot about fashion.

"I don't come from around here," Ike grunted. "I'm buying some clothes for me and my friend so we don't...stand out so much."

"Okay. Are you going to need help with that?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

She stepped out from behind the counter and led him through the store. A golden tag on her shirt told Ike her name was Alyssa. They weaved in and out of aisles filled with different goods and items. The place was filled with people, many of who couldn't help but look twice at Ike as he passed by. There was also this smell throughout the big, gray store. Ike didn't know exactly what it was, only that it smelled "new" and that he liked it.

"This is the clothing section," Alyssa explained when they reached a particular aisle. "It's not as extensive as, well, your average clothing store, but we do what we can."

"I don't need extensive. I just need something that works."

"So, uh, what are you looking for?"

In truth, Ike had no idea what he was looking for. He tried thinking of a decent answer, but he really had no idea what constituted normal. Sighing, he decided to take the embarrassing way out.

"Well...what do people normally wear around here?"

Alyssa gave him a friendly and somewhat pitying smile. "Well, for you, I'd go with something along the lines of this..."

She took out shirts and pants one by one, occasionally directing him to a small room to try them on. Ike almost always settled on whatever she picked out first. In the end, he had a small pile of three shirts and three pairs of blue, denim pants Alyssa called "jeans."

Next, he had to buy clothes for Pit, who Ike imagined was getting rather impatient at this point. He'd asked Pit to wait outside the store, out of view from common travelers but not hidden enough to be considered suspicious.

"So, what size is your friend?" Alyssa asked him, adopting an amiable and professional air.

Ike drew another blank. He had no idea what all these terms meant. He again tried thinking of a smart-sounding way out and again got nothing.

"Well," Ike began, holding his palms about a foot apart from each other, "he's about this wide..."

He managed to give her an acceptable amount of information, and they worked from there. Ike intentionally went more for the bigger, looser shirts so Pit wouldn't look like a hunchback with his wings tucked inside his shirt. Thirty minutes later, he walked out of the store with a couple of bags in his hand and a wallet slightly emptier than it had been.

He found Pit leaning on the building behind the store, staring into space. He eagerly snapped back to attention when Ike rounded the corner and handed him a bag. Pit investigated its contents and pulled the top shirt out, turning it about and viewing it from every angle.

"Interesting," he muttered. "Rather plain, but they'll work. How come they're so big?"

"For your wings. Let's find a restroom in some building and change."

"Sure it's not going to look out of place?"

"Definitely not. Some of the people walking around in there had their pants right below their butts."

"Really? I wanna see!"

"No. We're leaving as soon as we change."

Pit groaned but complied. They went into a nearby restaurant, entered the restroom in the back, found a stall to occupy, and changed into the first clothes they pulled out. Ike put his old clothes in his pack. Hopefully he'd use them again soon - the jeans felt so strange.

Ike exited the bathroom wearing a pair of blue jeans and a brown short-sleeved shirt that read "I [heart] Kangaskhan." Actually, Ike hated Kangaskhan as the only one he'd met tried to kill him, but if this was what people wore around here...

Pit stepped out a few moments later wearing a large, black, short-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans like Ike's. He kicked his legs out a few times, trying to get used to the new material. His wings were visible as two small bumps on his back, but it didn't look out of place enough to notice to the casual observer.

"Kinda feels weird," Pit frowned, readjusting the belt Ike had bought in addition to the clothes.

"Better than having people throw things at your head," Ike pointed out. "Come on, let's go."

They pushed the doors of the restaurant open and walked out. Ike looked at the map again to get his bearings.

"I got the heck scared out of me in there," said Pit, looking back at the restaurant. "That bowl of water in front of me kept draining on its own. I didn't even do anything. It kept refilling, too."

"The present day's technology," Ike murmured. "Alright, I know where we're going from here. It's not far, you can see Saffron in the distance."

He pointed his finger to his left. Several tall buildings rose up on the horizon, looking highly futuristic. Pit cupped his hand over his eyes like a visor.

"Wow. We're close. I'm getting excited!"

"It should be...another thirty minutes, I guess?"

"Shorter than that if we run. You're up for it, right?"

"Me?" Ike asked. Pit trotted ahead of him. Ike smirked and followed. "I'm not about to let a little kid like you outdo me."

"Little kid? You'd be surprised at what I can do!"

Although Ike was now dressed in what was (hopefully) normal clothing, he kept his sword strapped to his back. Ettard was one thing he was not willing to part with, especially after the recent events. They also received fewer strange glances, and nobody threw anything at Pit for the entire journey.

The scenery had changed considerably. Instead of oceans and beaches, trees covered the sides of the route. Aside from some tall grass Pokemon occasionally peeked out of and a pond, the environment didn't change much. Within fifteen minutes, they arrived within Saffron City's borders.

Despite the high-tech skyscrapers in the center of the city, the rest of the place was rather rustic. The ground was paved with bricks, and houses...well, they still looked advanced to Ike, but compared to other homes he'd seen in previous towns, they seemed simple, made mostly of wood.

"I like this place already," Pit sighed. "We're eating first, aren't we? Please tell me we're eating first."

"We're eating first."

"Alright! Let's go!"

Ike wasn't out of energy, but he had to hand it to Pit. There really was more to the kid than met the eye. He didn't seemed tired in the least. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he trotted behind the angel.

"You have to remember that I'm lugging a big sword and a pack around with me," Ike called up. "I don't run forever like you apparently do."

Pit slowed down a bit for him but didn't stop. Ike let him pick the restaurant, too weary at this point to argue. Naturally, he picked what looked to be the most expensive restaurant in the city.

"'Saffron Steak,'" Pit read, a grin growing on his face. "Awesome! Can we go here, Ike?"

"Looks expensive," Ike grunted. "If we're too loose with our money, we'll be broke before we know it."

"Is that a no?"

"No, we can eat here. Just don't expect us to eat like this every time we stop."

"Yeah, I know," said Pit. "I'm going to enjoy myself for now, though."

Once again, Ike felt out of place as he entered the restaurant. It was dimly lit and smelled heavily (and wonderfully, the two of them thought) of steak. Most of the diners wore fancy attire, including long dresses on the women and black suits for the men. Ike didn't care much for tradition and customs, but he couldn't help but reflect on what image he was presenting. Here, many people were promoting "I am smart, classy, and sophisticated," and Ike was telling everybody he loved Kangaskhan.

Nobody seemed to mind, though, as they hung back and surveyed the crowd. Pit picked up a menu lying on a pile of other menus and unfolded it. A few moments of silence filled the air between them. Finally, Pit spoke up.

"Just as I thought."

"What's that?"

"I can't make heads or tails of this. You try." He handed the menu to Ike.

Ike pushed it back. "Already did. Couldn't do it either."

"Hello," a man, obviously a waiter, said. With his black vest, white shirt, black pants, and brown ponytail, he fit right in. "I'm Jeffrey. I'll be your waiter today. Just follow me and I'll lead you to your table."

They followed Jeffrey through the steakhouse, staring hungrily at the plates of others as they strode by. More than once, Ike thought Pit was about to snatch a roll from somebody's basket and was glad he showed restraint.

Jeffrey guided them to a table for two near the window and handed out a couple of menus. He told them he'd give them a few minutes to think about what to order and left.

"Drinks," Pit muttered. "Drinks...here they are. Wait, what the heck is this? 'Fountain drinks'? They reserve a fountain just for this purpose? This _is_ an expensive restaurant."

"Probably another term we're a thousand years behind on," said Ike. "I'll just have water. It's the only thing I'm familiar with on the list."

"What's 'hot chocolate'? Wouldn't that be something you eat, not drink?"

Ike shrugged. "Don't ask me."

"More importantly," Pit continued, "what are we eating? I still can't figure half this stuff out."

"I have a plan," Ike told him. He leaned back and looked at the diners at the table beside him. "We'll just tell the waiter we're having what they're having."

"Does it have steak?"

"Yeah, that and some cooked vegetables. Are you okay with that?"

Pit nodded. They made small talk while they waited for Jeffrey to return. When he did, they both asked for waters and what the other table was having. Jeffrey wrote their orders down on a small notepad, then looked back up.

"The Steak and Veggie combo is 21.49," he explained. "You're fine with that?" When they both nodded (having no idea what constituted "expensive"), he continued writing. "It comes with a choice of soup, bread, or fries."

Jeffrey looked at Pit expectantly. Pit thought for a moment, then replied, "What do you have for soup?"

"Let's see," Jeffrey said, extending a finger for every choice, "we've got beef vegetable, egg drop, uh, tomato, white herbal for the health-conscious, shrimp noodle...any of those interest you?"

Pit stared at Jeffrey with mouth open, then at Ike. _Just pick one_, Ike mouthed. After a few seconds, Pit chose egg drop. Jeffrey wrote the order down and continued. "Would you like our restaurant's specialty Cinnabar spice sauce? It's 1 Poke Dollar extra."

Pit looked at Ike again. Ike made a _don't look at me_ gesture. Pit said no, and Jeffrey turned to Ike.

"And you, sir?"

"What do you have in the way of bread?" asked Ike.

"Garlic slices, breadsticks, beer bread, banana bread, toast..."

Ike frowned. "Beer bread? What's that?"

"It's a type of bread made by using beer. It's pretty good. It's got my recommendation."

"Is it...gonna make me drunk?"

Jeffrey laughed. "No, the alcoholic content's been baked out of it."

Pit looked at Ike. "This isn't working," he whispered.

"Well, uh, give me some of that, then," Ike said with a nod.

Jeffrey wrote down the information. To their horror, he looked up again and asked, "Would you like any appetizers while you wait for your food?"

There was a "no" from Ike and a "please no" from Pit. Jeffrey didn't appear to have heard Pit as he folded his notepad and told them their drinks would arrive shortly. Pit leaned forward on the table and ran his hands through his hair.

"Wow. Let's not do that again."

"I think we're surviving on dried meat and easy food for awhile after this," Ike admitted. "We're essentially cavemen in an advanced culture."

"I don't even know what my soup looks like," Pit muttered. "'Egg drop'...I half-think I'm going to look in the bowl and see a few broken eggshells in there."

"Eh, food is food. After this, we're moving out again."

"Where are we going again?"

"The Silph Co. It was the tallest building we saw on entering the city. There should be some information there. More than that, I think Pane and his guys are doing something in the building."

Pit nodded for a moment, then looked back up at him. "Pane? Who's Pane?"

Ike leaned back and rubbed his eyes. "Oh, I haven't told you about him, have I?"

With a sigh, he related the story of his meeting with Pane in Samus's dimension, how he had somehow saved Ike from death, and how Ike's last encounter with him went. Pit gazed at him silently through the whole story.

"He did something to the Teleporter, and I think that's what caused you and me to wind up where we did," Ike finished.

"That explains a lot," Pit responded.

"I can't help but think the whole incident at the academy was my fault," Ike said softly. "I should have known better than to go off with a stranger. If I hadn't, we'd probably be back at the academy, lounging around..."

"Don't go too hard on yourself," Pit told him. "You said he was wearing some sort of...scent thingamabob that made you trust him more. Besides, we can't change the past, so why dwell on it? Work on changing the future instead."

"You're right, Pit. Thanks for the motivational speech."

Pit smiled. "Wasn't much of a 'speech,' but thank you anyway."

Ike looked out the window beside him. Silph Co., the big building in the middle of the city. They could be walking into a trap as well as a vast source of information. Trap or no trap - either way, he'd make sure he got his answers.


	10. Chapter 9: The Silph Co, Part 1

Ike and Pit stood in front of the Silph Co.. It was the tallest building in the city and, compared to the rustic feel of the rest of the city, looked very futuristic. Although glass windows lined the sides of the building in rows, Ike noted they were all closed, preventing one on the outside from looking in. On the same line of thought, two men in olive-colored uniforms stood beside the entrance.

"Here goes nothing," Pit muttered. Ike grunted in agreement. They stepped toward the front doors.

"Hold it," the man on Ike's left said. He and Pit stopped. "Are you entering the Silph Co.?"

Ike returned the man's gaze. "We are."

"The Silph Co. is currently labeled an unstable research environment. We've got some experiments going on in the upper floors which could endanger casual visitors."

"What if we're not casual visitors?" Ike asked. It wasn't a challenge; he honestly wanted to know what would happen.

The man tilted his chin to up to the side a bit. "Do you have business with the Silph Co.?"

"Yes," Ike replied. "It's important. We're willing to risk your...experiments' side-effects. We just need some information."

"Well, orders are orders," the man shrugged. "I would need special permission to let you in at this point."

"Special permission?" It was Ike's turn to get cheeky. "What, may I ask, are you doing in the upper floors of the building that warrants so much concern?"

"That - " The man stopped speaking abruptly and put his fingers to his left ear, looking away from them. After a few seconds, his gaze froze over. A couple of moments later, he nodded once. "Understood." He put his hand down and looked back at Ike. "Uh, looks like the authorities okayed you. You're free to go in. The reception desk on the first floor should direct you where you want to go."

Ike glanced at Pit, who glanced back at him. This was a strange turn of events.

"However, we can't let you in with a weapon," the man continued. "If you're going in, leave the sword with the guards inside the door, and we'll get it back to you when you leave."

Ike considered this for a moment. He was extremely vulnerable without Ettard, and he wasn't so sure they _were_ going to give it back to him. Still, he didn't see how he was getting in any other way. He detached Ettard and held it by his side. He gave the man an indifferent thank-you and walked past him. The glass doors in front of him slid sideways to let him in.

Two more guards in uniform received them as they entered. They held their hands out, indicating for them to stop. Ike handed Ettard to them without a word. The one on the right frisked the two of them and searched Ike's bag. To Ike's immense relief, the guard searching Pit had thought nothing of the soft lumps on the youth's back. When they came up with nothing, they were let through.

"Well, we're in," Pit whispered. "Something's definitely going on in this place, and I don't think it's whacked-out experiments."

"I don't like how the 'authorities okayed us,'" Ike muttered back. "Did you see his face before he told us that? I think he knows who we are." Pit gave an aggravated sigh. "Let's get the information we need and get out. The longer we stay here, the more danger we put ourselves in."

The room was mostly empty. The white floor reflected a faint image of Ike back at him, but the rest of the room was otherwise rather simple-looking, if somewhat high-tech. A long blue desk with a young red-haired woman sitting behind it rested beside the wall they were facing. They stopped in front of it, causing the woman to glance up. She gave a smile that seemed forced.

"Hello," she greeted. "Welcome to the Silph Co.. Is there anything you need?"

Ike put his hands on his hips. "We're just looking for some information. The Silph Co. does research on things like...teleportation, right? Portals and all that?"

The woman laughed. Her laugh, like her smile, sounded forced. "Actually, the Silph Co. is all about teleport pads. I think you've come to the right place. Extensive research on the issue happens on the fifth floor." Ike muttered an affirmation and was about to walk off when she promptly brought up another topic of conversation. "So, um, what brings you here? Are you thinking of, eh, building your own teleporter? It's a somewhat dangerous activity, I hear, so please be careful if you are..."

The woman continued like this for what seemed like forever. Ike felt the last dregs of his social etiquette fading away. He was considering just walking out on her one-sided conversation, rude as it would appear. They didn't have time to waste learning about how her ex-boyfriend's brother had once tried to build a Teleporter years ago.

A couple of red doors in the wall beside the reception desk slid apart. Two more men in uniform strode out. As they walked farther into the room, their pace slowed. Ike watched them in his peripheral vision. As one, they turned the corner of the desk and continued walking. In their direction.

Warning sirens went off in Ike's head. He pretended to be deeply engrossed in the receptionist's speech, though every fiber of his being rejected the circumstances and told him to act. The men weren't changing direction. If they wanted to speak to the receptionist, she was right there.

The men were coming directly for _them_.

Ike looked at Pit, hoping he would get the message. The angel had already noticed. Ike began to walk past him when something sharp stabbed him in the side of the neck. A hand wrapped around his torso to prevent him from struggling. Pit recoiled and took a step back. The receptionist stood up and put her hand over her mouth.

Ike's vision began to blur. His body was quickly entering a forced sleep mode. He stumbled backward, sliding onto the floor. In his fading eyesight, he saw Pit punch the other man in the face. Scarlet sprayed from the man's nose. The man supporting Ike lowered Ike's head to the ground and went to help his comrade. Ike tried weakly to get up, but his body refused to listen to him. The man who had gotten Ike jabbed Pit in the neck with a needle as the other one held him back. Despite Ike's inner struggling, his eyes closed.

"Please don't hurt them," he heard the receptionist say before he passed out.

* * *

Ike slowly opened his eyes. His vision was still blurry, but he could tell he was sitting on a chair. Although his head ached and his body felt sluggish, he remembered everything that had happened to him. He and Pit had been captured. So where was he?

He looked around the room he was in. There wasn't much light to go around, save for the bright beam trained on his face. He squinted and looked away from it. The room was almost entirely bare except for a few chairs and a table containing equipment. Among the vials and needles he saw on the table were metal items with sharp ends. He swallowed.

"Looks like it's working," a female voice said somewhere in front of him.

Ike tried to sit up straighter, but something wouldn't let him. His arms had been handcuffed behind the chair.

He wouldn't bother asking where he was or why he was here. Those questions seemed trivial now. "Are you guys working with Pane?"

"It's him alright," a male voice said. The voice had originated to the right of the first one. "Our dear little Catalyst. Look who's come back."

"So you _are_ working with Pane," Ike responded. "What do you want with me?"

As his eyesight adjusted, he saw glimpses of the two sitting in front of him. The woman had long blonde hair and didn't look like she was beyond her early twenties. The man had a buzz cut, which made it difficult to judge his hair color, and appeared to be around thirty. Both were wearing uniforms similar to the guards Ike had met outside the building.

"Information," the woman answered. "For one, was there anybody besides Pit who came with you? And I'd like you to know that if you lie or withhold information, there are other, harsher ways to get the answers out of you."

Ike sighed. "No. Nobody else came with me. Just Pit." It didn't surprise him that they knew Pit's name.

"Beyond that, are you aware of the locations of anybody else you know from the academy?"

"No."

"Be honest with me."

"I am."

The woman stared at him intently. Ike stared back at her, though his gaze was less intimidating as he was sweating heavily. The room was sweltering.

"How did you arrive in this dimension?" the woman pressed.

"How the heck should I know?" Ike grunted. "I just woke up in the middle of nowhere. You'd know better than I would."

"You weren't conscious when you arrived?"

"No. What about you? Weren't any of your guys warped away?"

The woman ignored his question. "Where were you when you woke up? If what you're telling me is true."

Ike struggled to remember names. "Foo, uh...Fuchsia City. In some sort of special grounds directly north of it." He glared at her. "Enough of this. Let me out of here and start answering some of _my_ questions."

"That's not how it works, Ike," the woman said flatly. "You're not in a position to bargain. If you cooperate, we'll make sure you have every available comfort in whatever happens to you next. Give us trouble, and we can put you in a lot of pain. When and where did you meet Pit?"

"That was _also_ in the middle of nowhere," said Ike, thoroughly annoyed. "Look, I'm not keen on answering all your insipid questions if you don't answer mine first, pain or no pain. Did you take over the academy, or is the battle still going on? What state is the academy in?"

"That is not your place to ask."

"Then you'll get no answers out of me."

The woman drummed her fingers on the armrest of her chair. She continued staring into his eyes, expression unchanged. She grabbed a clipboard from the table beside her and began reading aloud from the paper attached to it.

"Let's see...Ike, no middle or last name, age 19. Residence in Crimea, Tellius. Blue hair, blue eyes, runs a mercenary company with his younger sister and nine others. Former general of the Crimean Liberation Army and proclaimed hero of the 'Mad King's War.'" She lowered the clipboard and focused her attention back on him. "You see, Mr. Ike, _we_ are the ones in the know. _We_ are the ones in charge. We know all about you, just as we know all about every other member of the so-called 'Super Smash Bros.' Your willpower is admirable, but ultimately fruitless. We didn't come here with merely a list of 'insipid questions,' and your willpower is not going to thwart our interrogation. We have truth serums, lie detectors, as well as various devices of torture. If one thing doesn't work, we can always switch to another. Resistance will get you nowhere, Mr. Ike, except in a new life with no comforts at all save for the few minutes a day you will get to see the sun."

Ike scowled at her. "Little brat. You're too young to be involved in a scheme like this." He turned to the man. "And what about Stone-Face over there? Does he do anything?"

The woman smiled. "Not yet. He's our torture expert. If you continue to resist, he might just do something after all."

"Don't you have a conscience for this?" Ike growled. "Why would you involve yourself in Pane's plans? What could you hope to gain from this that you couldn't honestly earn doing something right?"

Silence passed between the two of them. The woman looked at the man. "Derek, could you get the truth serum ready while I attempt to pry a few more answers out of him?"

Derek gave a short nod, stood up with a groan, and walked to the door. Light from the outside flooded in for a brief moment. When the door closed, Ike felt as if his hopes had vanished with the light.

"Now then," the woman continued, standing up, "I may not be the torture expert, but I'm nonetheless skilled in using a few torture devices myself." She picked up an injection needle from the table and slowly walked to Ike. "Do you know what this is?" Ike glared at her silently. A small smile formed on her face at his defiant stare. "This is the key to unraveling your future. The liquid in this can quickly turn your life 180 degrees. In the _wrong_ direction."

She walked around his chair and stopped behind it. Gently, she pulled up the short sleeve of his right arm. "This injection permanently cripples the muscles it spreads to," she explained. "This is your sword arm, am I correct? In a few short seconds, I could rob you of the ability to properly use a sword ever again."

Ike tried to yank his arm away from her touch. "Even if you cripple me, I'll do everything I can to cause you grief. If you'll answer my questions first, I'll quite obediently answer yours."

"Really?" the woman whispered. She was trying the sly, get-behind-your-mind approach. "You won't just answer our questions outright? Can you really live with no sword arm?" He felt her lower herself to the ground. "You could no longer lead the Greil Mercenaries. You could no longer support your allies in fighting. You couldn't be there to save them. Can you imagine staying at your base while everybody else goes off and risks their lives? And what about your little sister? Can you really handle your friends coming in from the last mission to inform you of her tragic death?"

Ike envisioned the scenario in his mind. No, he didn't think he could handle it. The woman's mind tricks were working.

"And why would little Mist have to die?" the woman went on. "Because _you_ weren't there to save her. Because _you_ had stubbornly refused to answer a series of simple questions and thus lost the use of your arm. You can really handle that?"

Ike didn't know what to say. Even if he answered her questions, would he ever return to Tellius again? An overwhelming urge to see his friends and sister again enveloped him. _I've got to get out of here. Even if I die trying, I've got to get out of here._

"And your stubbornness will not pay off in the end," she added. "We have an extremely potent truth serum that is guaranteed to loosen your tongue about anything we ask you. And what will you receive after that? All possible comforts withheld from you, subjecting you to a life of absolute misery. If you merely answer our questions truthfully, we'll see to it you live in relative comfort for the rest of your life."

Ike made up his mind. He didn't know if his plan would work, but he had to try. It was all he had left. "Alright. You win. I'll answer your questions in exchange for keeping my sword arm. Deal?"

She stood up and walked back to her seat, a triumphant smile on her face. "I knew you would see the light, Mr. Ike. We have a deal." To his dismay, she still held the needle, likely to show she wasn't backing down. "Now, where did you first meet Pit?"

"Super Smash Bros. Academy," Ike replied, playing dumb to buy him more time. He needed to wait for the right moment to try his plan.

"I'm talking about _this_ dimension," the woman reiterated. "Where did you first meet Pit in this dimension?"

She turned to grab something off the table. Ike seized his chance and began pulling his arms away from one another in an attempt to break the handcuffs off. His muscles strained. He didn't think he was getting anywhere. The woman didn't seem to notice. He envisioned his little sister, bleeding on the ground, dying because he couldn't come back and save her. Fire flashing before his eyes, he wrenched his arms apart. After a strain, the chains broke. The woman jerked back around in surprise. Before she could react, Ike dove forward, grabbed her left hand to prevent her from stabbing him with the needle, and punched her in the stomach. She tumbled off the chair with a gasp. Ike snatched the needle from her and planted his knee on her chest.

"You think I'm just going to sit back and let you have your way with me?" Ike growled. For the first time, the woman seemed frightened. "Now it's time for you to answer some of my questions. And I'd like you to know that if you lie or withhold information, there are other, harsher ways I can get my answers." He pinned her arms to the ground and leaned closer to her face. "_For one_, where's my sword?"

"I don't know for certain."

"Well, guess."

The woman looked into his eyes for a bit. "Maybe the storage room on the first floor. In this place, it could be anywhere. Perhaps the guards at the entrance still have it."

"What's the status on the academy? Has it really been taken?"

She sighed. "Completely and utterly. It's under our boss's control now."

"Pane?"

"Yes."

Ike closed his eyes. He'd feared as much. If they had this much access to the Teleporter, it could only mean the academy had fallen. He renewed his strength and continued asking questions. "Where's Pit?"

"Currently being interrogated in Storage Room 5B."

"How do I get to it? Remember, I won't take lies."

"I'm aware of that. Take a right outside this door, then a left down the next hallway. At the end of the hallway is a T-shaped junction. Take a right there and keep going down the hallway. The door at the end saying Storage Room 5B is the one you're looking for."

Ike went through the directions in his head to make sure he had them down. "Alright. Anything I should be aware of on my way there or when I arrive?"

She continued to switch her gaze from one of his eyes to another as she thought. "There are two more interrogators in Pit's room. If I remember correctly, there's also a guard standing outside a door on the...second hallway you'll pass through. That's not counting anybody walking around casually."

Ike's heart beat faster. How was he supposed to make it to Pit's room? And if that torture guy, Derek, was coming back with the truth serum, he didn't have a lot of time left to think. "How long until the torture expert comes back?"

She blinked. "Probably between thirty to sixty seconds."

Ike straightened up and tried not to swear. Thirty seconds to a minute. If he was going to do something, he had to act fast. Looking around the room, he found some cord on the table - presumably used for some sort of torture. He bound her wrists and ankles and, taking his shirt off, gagged her. Seizing one of the sharp instruments on the table, he stood by the door, hand raised. He was uncomfortably aware of the sweat dripping off his face as he waited tensely.

A minute or so later, the door opened. As soon as Ike saw a buzzed head, he hit the man in the face with the back of his fist. Before anybody outside could see or hear what was going on, Ike shut the door and flung Derek inside.

"What the...?" Derek shouted.

The truth serum clattered across the floor. As Derek attempted to scramble to his feet, Ike planted a foot in his chest and sent him backwards. Before the man could recover, Ike swung around to his backside and placed him in a chokehold.

"Clever," Derek muttered. "How'd you get out?"

"Try fighting for your life nearly every day and see what it does to your body," answered Ike. "Do you know where my weapons and items are?"

Derek laughed. Ike tightened his chokehold to show his disapproval. After coughing a few times, Derek said, "And what are you going to do if I don't tell you?"

"Well, take a look around you. You're not in the most favorable of positions right now, and we're in a room full of torture devices. Where's my stuff?"

Derek sighed. "You got me. It's in the storage room on the first floor. Good luck getting there in a building full of trained combatants."

"Don't worry, you can help me there." Even in the dark, Ike was fairly certain Derek's clothing size matched his. "How do I get back to the Linking Dimension?"

Derek laughed again, this time out of disbelief. "You want to go back there? Why?"

"What's it to you? Just tell me how to get there."

"Top floor, meeting room. Incidentally, it's also the Commander's quarters. Nobody comes or goes without his knowledge."

Ike would deal with that later. "Go on."

"Prototype Teleporter...leads to any dimension we've established communications with. I wouldn't expect you to know the first thing about it."

Ike was getting near the end of his conversation. He wanted to reach Pit before they took him somewhere else. "How did you invade the Linking Dimension? How would you even know where to look for it?"

"Look, I don't know the details. I'm no science geek. Something about planting a bug on you, which connected a rudimentary portal to the Linking Dimension. From there, we all filed through. Or most of us."

A thought occurred to Ike. "How many of you are there, anyway?"

Derek shrugged. "Heck...four hundred? Five hundred? There are a lot of us, pal. What are you gonna do, take us all on, just you and the bird boy?"

"I'm done talking. Are there any serums in this room that would put you and your blonde friend over there to sleep?"

"Yeah. It's the red vial labeled 'Knockout Drug.'" He tried to turn his head to look at Ike. "I'm telling you this for your own safety. Drop it. This is a fool's errand. Don't make things worse for yourself, and especially don't tick off Pane. There's not a man, army, or machine that can beat him."

"We'll see."

Dragging Derek with him, Ike stepped back to the table, found the knockout drug, and injected it into the man's neck (hoping it would work, as he was not used to the subtleties of the human body). When he was sure the man was unconscious, he laid him down, bound him with the cord, and gagged him with his undershirt.

Before leaving, he kneeled down by the woman he'd left leaning against the table. "Just to clarify: out this door, I take a right, then a left, then another right, and straight down the hall to get to Pit?" She nodded. "Good. That better not be a lie."

Especially because Ike didn't know what he would do if she _was_ lying.

He injected her with the knockout drug and watched her until her head drooped. Satisfied, he stood up and gathered essential materials.

A few minutes later, Ike walked out of the room wearing a Horizon uniform minus an undershirt. He buttoned his shirt higher to compensate for this and closed the door behind him quietly. He was safe from casual glances, but he knew his blue hair would probably give him away if anybody did a double-take. Looking both ways, he walked as calmly as he could to the right, mopping the sweat off his face.

Another white hallway opened on his left. Like the other halls he had seen, it was decorated with little more than some potted plants and basic machinery. He leaned forward to see down the hall. As the woman had said, there was a guard standing in front of a door on the right wall. He narrowed his eyes. He didn't think he could make it past the guard without being recognized. That only left deviating off his original path to find another route. Trying to remain inconspicuous, he walked past the hall on the left and kept going down his current hall.

His next left was a large entrance to an even larger room. Big machines and beeping noises filled the area. People in white coats and Horizon uniforms worked on various items and objects. To Ike's dismay, there was no opening to the third hallway in this room. His current route led to a dead end. Before he could be spotted, he turned around. Guess the hallway with the guard was his only choice.

He entered the second hall on the way to Pit's room as casually as he could. He didn't look at the guard, make a noise, or otherwise draw attention to himself. To his relief, the guard ignored him. Suppressing a sigh of gratitude, he turned right at the end of the hall.

At the end of this next hall, as the blonde woman had told him, was a metal door with a plaque reading "Storage Room 5B" on it. Heart thumping harder, he quickened his pace and reached the door as quickly and silently as he could. Coming up with a basic plan for when he entered in, he knocked on the door a couple of times.

"There's an interrogation going on in here," a male voice answered.

"News from the top," Ike responded. "Figured you should hear it before Pane offs another one."

There was a small pause. "Well, come in."

Ike opened the door, let in as little light as he could, and closed it quietly. He was in. He trusted the darkness to conceal his features. In the back of the room, a beam illuminating him, Pit sat in a chair, his wrists handcuffed to it. The angel glared at him without realizing who it was. "First," Ike began, "how's the interrogation going?"

The man on Ike's left chuckled darkly. "Typical. Won't tell us anything, not even the name of the other guy we found him with. Which is pointless, 'cause we know his name anyway."

They both glanced behind themselves and gave Ike a quick appraisal. They still didn't seem to recognize him.

"So what's the word?" the man on the right asked.

Ike desperately hoped he wouldn't say anything revealing. "Pane's ordered all captured members of the Super Smash Bros. to be returned to the Linking Dimension immediately. Don't know what he's planning, but the first person who ignored him got stripped of his rank and put under probation."

The two interrogators stared at him. "You sure?" the one on the right said. "Where's the order file?"

Ike had no idea what an order file was but continued to play it professionally. "It's back in the room with Ike. The interrogators there are still going over the details, so I couldn't bring it with me."

The interrogator on the right looked at the other man and shrugged. "Guess we'd better hop to it. Let's not do anything conclusive until we've seen the order file. I don't want any chance of Pane giving me the boot. Or putting me full of holes. This is serious stuff."

"Good idea," Ike added.

They stood up and began unlocking Pit's handcuffs, which was just was Ike had been waiting for. One of them stood guard over Pit with a device in his hand while the other bent down and freed his hands. Ike slammed his fist into the back of the first man's neck. The man grunted and went down instantly. As the other interrogator looked up, having just freed Pit, Ike kicked him in the face. Before he could recover, Ike took the knockout drug from his shirt pocket and jabbed it into the man's neck. When the man slumped to the floor unconscious, Ike did the same to the other interrogator.

"What's going on here?" Pit demanded, standing upright. He held his hands up in preparation for a fight.

"Pit, it's me," said Ike. "I escaped from my interrogators. They're both unconscious right now." He stepped into the light to help Pit see better.

Pit narrowed his eyes and looked closer. A smile bloomed on his face. "Hey, it _is_ you! How'd you get out of there?"

"I'll tell you later. Right now, I need to look for my sword and our bag. You stay here and keep your head down. If anybody other than me comes in, take something off the table and hit them with it."

"No need," Pit grunted. "I've already got a weapon."

Ike paused. "You do? Where?"

Pit stretched his right arm out, palm down. With a sound like the chime of a small bell, two golden rings appeared on his left wrist, hovering around the skin without touching it. In his outstretched hand, two metal blades appeared, extending away from each other until Ike realized they were the ends of a more complex object. The finished product was two dazzling blades bending towards Pit, connected by a small, golden bridge.

"What the heck is that?" Ike murmured.

"Palutena's Bow," Pit proudly announced. "It can fire a limitless number of Light Arrows, and by separating the ends..." Pit pulled the two ends of the bow apart with a small _chink_ - "...they can be used as individual blades."

"Wow." Ike didn't know what else to say. "Well, uh, I'll go and look for my sword. If anybody comes in, just...shoot them or something."

Pit reconnected the bow. Before leaving, Ike noticed one of the unconscious interrogators was wearing a cap. Deciding it would be good for hiding his blue hair, he snatched it off the man's head and placed it upon his own. Making sure the most of his hair was tucked under the hat, he opened the door and left the room.


	11. Chapter 9: The Silph Co, Part 2

Ike had hoped the way to the first floor would simply reveal itself to him, but he quickly discovered it was the opposite. He mentally labeled the Silph Co. one of architecture's greatest blunders. It was almost as if the place was designed to be a maze. Everywhere, he was running into dead ends and locked doors. If there was a map or key pointing out the way to the stairs, he didn't find one. He didn't dare ask a "fellow" Horizon for directions lest they should recognize him and blow his cover.

Ten minutes later, he finally found the stairs. Grumbling, he quickly descended down it, passing by a few Horizons and ignoring them as best he could. Most of them didn't acknowledge his existence, either. Some moments later, he arrived on the bottom floor.

The exit was on the wall far to his left. Freedom was so close, but he would never abandon Pit. Besides, the only way he knew of leaving his current dimension was through the Prototype Teleporter on the top floor. On his right, he noticed the receptionist, still as frightened-looking as ever. He suspected she had been coerced into helping Horizon, but he still wasn't fond of her spiel that got him into trouble in the first place. Walking through the room, he pretended to be very interested in a placard beside the exit so she wouldn't recognize him.

_Storage room,_ Ike thought, scanning the walls. _I don't see anything that says 'Storage Room.' Well, this hasn't made my day any easier._

There were only four sets of doors in the lobby, with one of them being the exit and the other leading to what Ike guessed was a small room used for transportation up and down the building. The men who had captured him came from that door. The two other outlets were located on the other side of the reception desk and on the wall opposite the stairs. One was labeled "Employees Only." The other had no name at all. Ike decided to try the latter one first.

He stood in front of the door and gently pushed on it. It didn't slide open. He tried walking back and forth in front of it. Nothing happened. His placed his hands on his hips and sighed, resisting the urge to swear.

"Need something in there?" one of the guards beside the exit called.

Ike glanced at him and immediately looked back at the door. Those guards had seen his face before, if briefly. He couldn't risk letting them take a better look at him. "Yeah. How do I get in there?"

"Go talk to Dr. Clide. He should have the key."

"Yeah? Where's he at?"

The guard snorted. "Second floor, moron. You trip and fall on your head this morning?"

Ike ignored him and walked back to the stairs. The guard was still laughing behind him.

Dr. Clide was easy to find. The scientist was evidently a ranking notch higher than most other Horizons and let it show in his grumpy demeanor, even to common grunts (like Ike). Thankfully, Dr. Clide was a little dense in his bossiness and didn't seem to care that Ike's reason for getting into the storage room was rather dubious.

"Make sure you bring that card back," the bearded scientist ordered as Ike walked away. "It won't do to have some mindless grunt lose it at this time, what with Horizon settling into all these dimensions. ...Hey, are you listening to me?"

No, Ike was not.

To his relief, the untitled doors in the lobby opened when Ike swiped the keycard through a thin slot in the wall. He carefully placed the card into his shirt pocket and stepped into the crowded room. The doors shut behind him.

This room in particular was meticulously clean. Shelves containing supplies, mostly Horizon gadgets and weapons, stuck out from the walls. He scanned each shelf carefully, looking for a large steel sword and a backpack. Halfway down the room, he found Ettard on the center-left shelf. He wanted to equip it, but that would only draw attention to himself. For now, he would carry it in his arms as if transporting it from one room to another.

His bag he found near the end of the room. To his dismay, the bag had been looted of its food and money. Supposing he successfully warped with Pit to a new dimension, he may have to hunt for awhile. He would have Pit as an archer with that strange bow of his, and Ike's father had shown him the basics of preparing animals for eating long ago.

He considered taking some of the other items on the shelves with him, but most of it was so technologically advanced he couldn't use it. No use shooting himself in the foot with a weapon he couldn't make heads or tails out of. With the items in his arms and an alibi forming in his mind, he walked out of the storage room.

"Hey," one of the guards near the exit called. It was the one who had laughed at him before. "Where you going with that?"

The alibi growing in Ike's mind conveniently reached maturity that moment and flowed smoothly out of his mouth. "The Commander wants to take a look at the sword that guy came with. He also ordered that the bag be further inspected."

"It was already inspected," the guard said.

"Well, Commander's orders. I'm not going to argue with him."

The guard didn't bother him anymore as he ascended the stairs and worked his way back to the fifth floor. The problem now was finding his way back to Pit's room. He'd completely lost track of direction when he was first looking for the stairs. Even worse, several people asked him what he was doing with "the blue-haired guy's stuff." He had to check in a reflective surface to make sure his blue hair was not readily visible. He groaned as he turned the next corner. With any luck, he'd be out of this accursed place soon. He wasn't even sure how he was going to handle the Commander. For all he knew, the Commander -

Without warning, the hallway spun before Ike's eyes. He felt his feet leave the ground as his equilibrium shifted. The feeling stopped just as quickly as it had started. On his back, he looked around. The room had changed. He was now in a room of middling size with orange cargo crates stacked in the center. From the appearance of the floors, walls, and ceiling, he was still in the Silph Co.. A gray door blocked off this room from the rest of the building.

He remembered it now: _"The Silph Co. is all about teleport pads."_ He'd avoided the strange-looking tiles for fear he'd trip an alarm or something, but he must have stepped on one without looking.

Ike heard a gasp to his right. It was a young brown-haired woman, probably no older than 21. She was bound hand and foot with some silver substance Ike had never seen before. She stared nervously at the huge sword in his hands.

Ike stood up and made a quick check around the room to make sure no Horizons were in the room. A few other people were also bound, leaning against the walls or crates. Ike picked up three types of stares: terror, hatred, and resigned indifference. Did Horizon really have this effect on its victims?

He walked back to the first woman and bent down on one knee. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes were still locked on his sword. "Who are you? What does your organization want with us? Please, I need someone to answer my questions!"

"Keep it down," Ike whispered. "I'm not an enemy. The organization you're talking about was interrogating me, but I broke free. I took one of their uniforms and used it to sneak around a bit." He lifted Ettard's handle. "This is my sword. I'm not going to hurt you with it. Don't worry about it."

The young woman's expression changed from fright to concern. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm clearly not on vacation." The woman's expression changed to apology. Ike sighed. "Sorry. I was...a member of a group they tried to take over a couple of days ago. I screwed up their raid, and a bunch of us - the members of our group - got scattered around the place. They've been looking for the remnants ever since, or so I surmise."

The young woman's eyes widened. "Then, you're that...the one the organization here is looking for..."

"I'm Ike." He extended his hand for a handshake, then realized it would be improper and changed it to a rub on her shoulder. "I came here looking for information on getting back to the place it all started from. Where the raid happened. Anything you can tell me about this organization, Horizon, or anything related, would be appreciated."

She stared into his eyes for a moment. A weak smile formed on her face. "Tessa. I'm an assistant here at Silph." Tessa glanced around the room, wondering where to start. "Horizon said they were looking for two people in this 'dimension,' but I don't know what they meant by that."

"It's complicated. I'm one of the two people, and I came here with the other. As far as I know, he's alright. Whoever told you 'dimension' was referring to an entirely different world. I come from another world. Not just another planet or a faraway land. I mean...it's hard to explain." Ike remembered going through a similar explanation to the leader of the organization he was trying to thwart. "No matter where you look in your universe, you'd never find me. I live in a different universe altogether. If that makes sense at all."

Tessa bit her lip. Ike guessed it didn't.

"So my friend and I were inadvertently warped to your dimension," Ike finished. "Do you know if anybody else, anybody Horizon is looking for, was warped here?"

She was still mulling over what Ike had told her about the separate worlds. "Uh...no. I don't think so. They never acted like it. They only referred to two people."

"How many members of my group have they captured? Have they ever mentioned?"

She shook her head. "They never stated an exact number, but I believe they said at least half. How many...how many people were in your group?"

Ike went over a brief list of people in his head. "Thirty, forty? They probably got the better part of that half from the raid. How many dimensions has Horizon invaded?"

Tessa shrugged apologetically. "Three, maybe? That's how many I heard. They say they're planning to invade a lot more." She sighed. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you. Everything I learn, I hear in passing."

"No, that's fine. Do you know which dimensions they invaded?"

"No. Sorry."

Ike looked back at the warp pad. "That thing teleports you around the building, right? Can you use it to escape?"

"We've tried. It won't let any prisoners through. I think they planted something on us that prevents us from using the warp pads, and I heard they're trying to reconfigure the pads as well."

Ike cautiously shifted his focus back to Tessa. If a Horizon came in behind him, he'd have to either attack or devise an excuse fast. "You're doing great, Tessa. Just a little bit more. What's Horizon going to do with the prisoners here?"

For the first time, tears welled up in Tessa's eyes. "I don't know for certain, but I think they're going to take us away somewhere else. I've heard that all prisoners from every dimension are going there. I don't want to leave here."

Ike put his hand on her shoulder. "I know. You're going to have to be strong. You've got it in you. Did they say where the prisoners are going?"

Tessa sniffed. "The...Linking Dimension? They say that's where the leader of the organization is. Horizon."

_Pane, huh?_ Ike thought. _I've got a lot to sort out with him. I don't even know how I'm going to beat him. Maybe this _is_ a fool's errand._

"Just one more question," said Ike. "What can you tell me about the Commander here? I'm going to meet him soon and probably either knock him unconscious or kill him."

Tessa forced back her tears. "I've never seen him before. Horizon's members seem to fear him. It seems like his word is the absolute law around here."

"Nothing else?"

"No. I've never met him before."

Ike mulled over the new information he'd been given. Horizon appeared to have invaded at least three dimensions, but if conditions over there were anything like the current dimension, their influence wouldn't have spread very far. To get out of the Pokemon dimension, Ike required the Prototype Teleporter. The Commander, located at the top floor, was in possession of this Teleporter. Ike would have to confront him if he wanted to get anywhere. The Commander would naturally be a good source of information, such as where to go next.

Ike had initially planned to return to the Linking Dimension and attempt to save it, but that plan was moot now. In only the past half an hour or so, he'd had to change tactics rather suddenly. To have a shred of hope at overthrowing Horizon, Ike needed the help of the other Super Smash Bros.. His quest now was to find as many of them as he could before going to the Linking Dimension and challenging Pane.

"Are you...going to free us?" Tessa asked, breaking Ike out of his reverie.

Ike looked away. "I...we'll see what happens. I don't know if I can do that right now. I'm sorry." Her shoulders sagged. "Listen, one day, I'll find a way to free you. All of you. I promise. Alright?" She nodded, but Ike wondered if she really believed him. He stood up. "Thanks, Tessa. I've got to go. And I'd appreciate it if you kept our discussion here a secret, even among your fellow prisoners." Ike was fairly certain they'd been quiet enough to minimize the risk of being overheard. He put half his foot inches over the warp pad. "I'll get you out one day. Maybe not now, but you'll be free."

He set his foot down and felt the room spin again. A split second later, he landed back in the hallway of the fifth floor. He glanced up and down the corridor. He had no idea where he was. Bolstered by his promise to the young prisoner, he walked off the pad and down the hall, turning corners almost randomly, hoping he would refresh his memory and find the right path.

A few minutes later, he found Storage Room 5B and slowly opened it. It was as dark inside as ever. Ike stepped in, making sure he could swing Ettard if necessary. "Hello? Pit?"

"State your name," a youthful voice spoke from the corner.

"Ike," he replied. Pit stepped closer to the beam of light. Ike handed him the bag.

"Good timing," the angel said, burrowing through the pack. "I was about six seconds from leaving the room and searching for you. I was afraid you'd been discovered or... Wait a minute, where's the food? Where's our money?"

"Gone," Ike grunted. "I guess Horizon felt it'd be put to better use for them." He glanced down and noticed a third body lying on the floor next to Pit's interrogators. "Who's this?"

"Some chick who walked in while you were gone. I knocked her out with a Light Arrow, but I suspect she'll wake up any time now. So how'd your adventure go?"

Ike shrugged and inspected Ettard in the light. "Well enough. I didn't run into any real trouble. What we need to focus on now is how to get up to the top floor, neutralize the Commander, and use the Prototype Teleporter to get to another dimension."

"Back up a bit," said Pit. "Where are we gonna go? Who's the Commander?"

Ike told him a summarized version of his plan. The woman on the ground moaned and stirred. Pit promptly shot her with a shining arrow. She didn't move after that except for her breathing.

"How's this for getting to the Commander?" Ike proposed. "You act like my prisoner, which gets us both safely up to the top floor. Assuming the Commander is alone, we overpower him and get him to tell us everything we need to know about which dimension to hit next and how to work the Teleporter. After knocking him unconscious, we warp to the next dimension and work our way to a good source of information."

Pit thought it over. "Wouldn't it look suspicious if I wasn't in handcuffs?"

"Just put your hands behind your back. I'll stand behind you. No one will notice the difference."

Pit looked down at the bodies on the floor. "Alright. Let's get going. The less time we waste, the better off we are."

A moment later, Ike led Pit out of the storage room. They walked quickly to both give the impression of haste and to reach their destination as fast as possible. Pit held his hands behind his back to keep in line with his prisoner image. Ike stood closely behind him to prevent anyone from noticing the lack of metal on the angel's wrists.

They were stopped only twice on their way up the stairs, but it cost them a lot of time. The first guy to stop them seemed extremely curious about why Ike was marching a prisoner upstairs and carrying heavy equipment all by himself. He was finally able to shake him off, but he had the feeling the Horizon was dangerously suspicious of them. The second person to stop them, a woman, was less interested but still demanded to know what they were doing. Ike explained his way out of it and ascended the stairs even more quickly.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about all this," Pit muttered.

"I know," Ike whispered. "Just keep walking."

At last the stairway ended, leaving them on the top floor. A hall extended to their right; a wall blocked off the left. Wide windows allowed sunshine to seep in through the walls. Ike, however, was feeling less than sunny at the moment. Swallowing, he led Pit down the hall and turned the corner at the end. Another left took them into the meeting room.

A long table filled the center of the room, but Ike got the impression the rest of the space had been completely revamped for Horizon's convenience. Numerous monitors and machines sat against the walls. Near the back-left corner was a steel desk. Sitting behind this desk was a middle-aged, black-haired man wearing the same olive-colored uniform as the other Horizon members. A golden badge pinned to his chest indicated he had more authority than the rest.

The man looked up as they entered the room. "What do you want?" His voice was deep and cautious. This would not be an easy enemy to fool.

"I've brought the prisoner as you ordered, sir," Ike lied.

The man, clearly the Commander, stopped entering information into a monitor. "I ordered no such thing." He looked into Ike's eyes. Ike held the gaze, trying not to appear nervous but ignorant as to what gestures could help him. A grin grew on the Commander's face. This expression told Ike everything: _He knows who I am._ The Commander stood up and slowly walked around his desk.

"I don't recognize you," he said. "Are you a new recruit?"

"No, I've been here awhile, sir," Ike improvised. "I was just sent to this dimension yesterday."

"Hmm." The Commander walked to the table and picked up a thin metal frame with a holographic screen. "Do you know how Admins are promoted to their position, rookie?"

Ike shook his head. "No, sir, I don't."

"It's a simple process. Pane keeps tabs on a member of Horizon whom he believes possesses remarkable talent in a certain field. After careful inspection over a period of many days, through which the potentially-promoted member is usually given assignments more difficult than they're used to, a decision is reached. They are either ignored and continue to work as grunts, or they are invited to a meeting and quietly promoted. From then on, all lower-ranking members must pay due respect to their former partners.

"Promotion to Admin is no small thing. In all of Horizon's history, which spans roughly two decades, only nineteen members have ever been promoted. I, of course, happened to be one of the lucky few. An even smaller number of Admins are given the title of Commander. Commanders hold a little more authority over other Admins and assume responsibility of an entire division. In my case, it's the goings-on in Dimension 001. The system is structured in such a way to be nearly infallible. Attempting to attack or compromise Horizon is akin to suicide...especially with a gargantuan army of two." He glanced back up at Ike. "Would you agree?"

Several things happened at once. Ike let go of Pit in preparation to attack. The Commander hit a small lever on the gun in his holster and whipped it out, aiming for Ike. Pit swung his right arm around, Palutena's Bow appearing at lightning speed. A laser fired from the Commander's gun and sailed for Ike's head. Pit spun his bow rapidly, dispelling the laser. Ike jumped out from behind Pit and held Ettard by his side.

"Impressive," the Commander lauded, gun now trained on Pit. "I was not even aware you possessed a weapon, Pit. Another mystery to be revealed."

"Not anytime soon," Pit retorted. "Put the gun down and let's get down to business."

Ike carefully slipped the bag onto his back. He couldn't fight with his sword in one hand and a bag in the other.

"I am Admin 005," the Commander told them. "I was promoted specifically for my skill in marksmanship. Let's see how you fare."

A bowstring made of light appeared at Pit's fingers. He pulled the string back and let an arrow fly about as fast as Ike could blink. The Commander moved his center to dodge the attack and fired a volley of lasers. Ike dove behind the table for cover. When he looked back, Pit was unharmed and seeking shelter behind a potted plant.

Before the Commander could shoot at Pit again, Ike stabbed at his enemy's legs underneath the table. The Commander moved his leg out of the way and fired at Ike's leg in return, reacting quicker than most enemies Ike had faced. The laser hit his right foot, which instantly went numb and spread to his calf. He collapsed to his knee and swung in panicked defense. He clipped the edge of the Commander's left leg, but little harm had been done.

To Ike's left, Pit charged out from behind the plant, bow held aloft. He blocked the Commander's lasers with a spin of his bow, holding it upright and returning fire after the third laser. The arrow hit the Commander in the right side of the chest, knocking him backwards. The middle-aged man shot instinctively as he fell. The laser grazed Pit's cheek. Before he could fire again, Pit swung his bow and cut the gun in half.

"I'd say we fared pretty well," said Pit, aiming another arrow at the Commander's forehead. "What do you think? Are you going to tell us everything we want to know?"

Ike stood with some difficulty and limped beside Pit. "Are you okay, Pit?"

"Yeah, fine," Pit murmured back.

"Everything you want to know?" the Commander repeated. "No, I do not think so. Your futures look pretty grim as it is. I know I'm going to sound like your typical 'bad guy', but you really should surrender yourselves before things get worse. I was not exaggerating when I said Horizon was an infallible organization. At its core is Pane, the most powerful being in existence. Even if the rest of Horizon falls and you amass an entire army, Pane cannot be defeated."

"You put a lot of stock in this Pane guy," Pit commented. "Who is he? What makes him so supposedly powerful?"

The Commander calmly sat cross-legged on the floor, disregarding the sword and bow pointed at his head. "Pane is a man who keeps to himself and never tells anybody more than they need to know. He firmly believes in a 'food chain monarchy' - that the strongest should be on top, and the weak should follow. Pane is the strongest _thing_ I have ever seen, which makes him the prime candidate as the leader of such a world."

"So Pane's goal is to take over every dimension and reshape them to his food chain monarchy," Ike concluded. "That's it? No special motive? Just world domination?"

"If he has other reasons for conquering all existing dimensions, he has not told me so," the Commander replied. "As far as I know, he has never told anyone the source of his power, either. It appears to be a form of energy generated straight from his body. This energy can be manifested outside his body to be used for attack, but I think it would be a safe guess to say the strange energy is also what gives him his speed, power, and impenetrable hide."

"Impenetrable?" Pit asked. "What do you mean? Nothing can hurt him?"

The Commander cocked his head. "I'm sure if you hit him hard enough, it would get through to him. However, Pane is essentially a superhero straight from a comic book. Rumor has it he once took out an entire fleet of Earth fighter ships by his lonesome. This is why every member of Horizon pays him the highest respect. He's an even-tempered man, but also rather impulsive. If he decides you're to die, there's no stopping your fate."

Ike groaned inwardly. _I've experienced a taste of Pane's power for myself, and every description I hear of him makes the situation seem even more hopeless._ "Well, we can't stop just because it's hard. I'm not going to sit back and let Pane run everyone's lives. Where's the Teleporter?"

The Commander gestured to a machine behind him. "The Teleporter is the black machine back there. It can be detached and used as a portable device. However, it will not stop Horizon members from coming and going from this dimension."

Pit motioned with his head for Ike to check it out. Ike limped over and held the sides of the black machine with his hands. "Alright. How do I detach it?"

"Press the two silver buttons on the side in and pull up."

Ike let his stare linger to show he'd be highly upset if the Commander was tricking him. He found the silver buttons and followed the Commander's directions. The top of the machine popped off. Ike picked it up and examined it. It was about a foot around and perfectly square. Several buttons and a screen decorated the front of it.

"How do we work this thing?" Ike demanded. "And you'd better not lie."

"I have no reason to lie at this point," the Commander stated. "I'm not terribly familiar with it myself, as it's only a prototype. However, it's been tested and guaranteed to work. I suggest you take the instruction manual on the shelf beside the Teleporter with you. It will tell you more than I can."

Ike noticed the manual - another metal frame with a holographic screen - and picked it up. He could carry both the Teleporter and the manual in the bag. "Well, I'm grateful for your help. I guess. Pit, knock him out."

"If you want to know where to go next," the Commander said after a pause, "I can tell you." Ike turned back around to him. "Base 002 and Base 003 are located in their respective dimensions. I believe Dimension 002 is the homeland of a certain plumber named Mario and his brother Luigi. Dimension 003 contains the land of Hyrule. Both have been only recently taken, but a 'depot' of records and information has been established near Base 002. If you're looking for answers, I would suggest you go there."

Ike stared at him. He had no way of knowing if the Commander was telling the truth. "Why are you helping us, if what you're telling us is true?"

The Commander gave him a dark grin. "Oh, I have my reasons. Now, I believe it is time for a final act of resistance..."

Ike was about to ask him to repeat himself when the Commander stood up and charged at him. Ike, startled, raised his sword impulsively. Pit released his arrow into the Commander's foot. Ike pushed Ettard out, attempting to stop him at the shoulders. With the shock to his foot, the Commander fell, slashing his neck against Ettard's blade. Ike's eyes widened as blood sprayed into the air. The fallen Admin lay at Ike's feet, limp and quickly turning pale.

"My last gift to Pane," he wheezed, blood pouring onto the floor. "I did what I could to stop them. How I would have loved to see how this misadventure unfolds..."

Pit looked solemnly at Ike. "There's nothing we can do for him. Technically, he brought it on himself."

Ike met the dying Commander's piercing gaze. "You were our enemy and possibly our helper. If you've truly helped us, I thank you for your understanding. You may not get to see our 'misadventure' as it happens, but I can tell you how it will end: Horizon will crumble, and so will Pane." He turned away from him. "Rest in peace, Admin."

Pit stepped over the body and stood beside Ike. "So, what now? We can't spend long here. If a Horizon finds us with a dead Commander, they're not going to be very happy. We've got to move."

Ike nodded. "Right. Help me read this instruction manual. I'm confused as it is."

So ended Ike and Pit's journey through Dimension 001 as labeled by Horizon. Although perplexed by the recent turn of events and discouraged at the description of Pane, the two had found a new objective to strive towards. Their next mission would take them through Dimension 002, the world containing the Mushroom Kingdom. Once there, they would dissect the mystery of the 'record depot' while searching for lost companions. Ike was fully aware their journey had only begun.


	12. Chapter 10: Scarred

Kreta walked between the bookshelves of the academy library. Though the Super Smash Bros. Academy had been completely taken over, it hadn't changed all that much. Aside from the Horizon grunts running all around the place and a few machines here and there, the building was mostly untouched. Kreta glanced at a laser hole in the bookshelf beside him. He grimaced. Emphasis on _mostly_.

He had to admit, "Smash School" was a great deal more comfortable than the underground facilities Horizon typically used. The Admins - of which he was a member - got the private bedrooms on the second floor and basement. The rest had to do with a makeshift barracks in the old Meeting Room. As it was now, the building couldn't suitably hold all of Horizon, so they were scattered around a few dimesions. The Linking Dimension, however, served as the new base for Horizon.

Kreta winced as pain shot through his chest. That blue-haired idiot had cut him from his left shoulder to above his right hip. Kreta had had to spend about a day and a half recovering in the infirmary, which was conveniently placed in the old Healing Room. He'd been released earlier today, and that was only after he'd begged/threatened the doctor.

That wasn't the worst of it; if the members of Horizon weren't talking about him before, they certainly were now. He knew for a fact some of the Admins were. _Have you heard about Kreta? He was so cocky during the invasion that he let some outnumbered guy beat him in less than a second. Typical of him_. He wasn't that bad. His status as an Admin proved that. But how did the rest of Horizon feel about that?

He strode out of the library, cautious not to trigger another stab of pain. His wound was closed and his chest carefully bound up, but he wanted no chances of being put out of action any longer. His long-established reputation was at stake here.

Pane had summoned Kreta to his "office," likely to check on his condition. It was just as well; Kreta wanted to talk to Pane about something. He passed by a couple of grunts, who muttered their gratitude for his recovery, and headed for the doors leading outside. To his right was a metallic platform Horizon had installed just the previous day. Kreta stepped on it and let it take him to the top of the academy. The magnetic material the platform was made out of prevented him from losing his balance and falling.

Seated behind a desk in the middle of the flat roof was Pane. The boss took a sip of his special "Fruitaccino" - coffee with sugar, cream, and ketchup - and looked up at Kreta. He grinned. "Good to see you, Kreta. Come in to my office."

Kreta stepped onto the roof and laughed. "Heh. The whole outdoors is your office." He wondered if that was the point. "Are you sure about the office being outside, though? What if it rains?"

"So what if it does? Everything here is waterproof." Pane leaned back in his chair. "Besides, I get the impression it doesn't rain here. We've got a sun-like substance and a moon-like substance, but I think this dimension lacks seasons. It's beautiful in a pitiful kind of way."

Kreta pulled up a chair on the other side of the desk and sat down. Pane seemed to be right about the weather - there hadn't been a cloud in the sky since they'd arrived. He wondered how the vegetation survived in the Linking Dimension. "So, what'd you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, just a status report. How're you feeling?"

Kreta shrugged. "Good. Enough."

"Good enough to fight?"

Kreta hesitated. "If I had to. If I move wrong, there's still this pain in my chest."

"Hmm. I was hoping we could use you. The residents of Dimension 003 are putting up a bigger fight than I thought they would. I figured you could help us out there, show the people who's boss."

The Admin studied Pane, thinking how best to approach his next statement. Pane's brown hair was the same dark shade as Kreta's, though the latter's reached just below his chin as opposed to Pane's unkempt shorter hair. Pane was now wearing a faded gray shirt and scuffed-up blue jeans. As casual and anti-professional as it may have looked, Kreta somehow didn't think Pane would answer his next question positively.

"Actually," Kreta began, "I have a...request to make of you."

"A request?" Pane cocked his head. "It's not going to be something silly, is it?"

"No, no. Not really."

"'Not really'?"

"You've heard the latest on Ike and Pit, right?"

Pane grinned. "If everyone knew about this but me, we'd have some kinks to work out in the communications department." He sighed and rested his chin on his palm, but he didn't seem depressed about the issue. It was more like anticipation. "Yeah, I heard about the whole Silph Co. fiasco. We're going to have to tighten up security everywhere, which will be a real pain in the butt. Then they went and took the prototype portable Teleporter and got lost in Dimension 002. Now we'll have to build another one, and those things aren't easy to make."

A smug smile crossed Kreta's face. "Do the morons even know we can monitor their movement?"

"Probably not." Pane took a sip of his Fruitaccino. "When it comes to technology, they're like Neanderthals. I'm surprised they even figured out how to work it. As it is, they don't seem to have met much success with it." He stared at Kreta. "So, what was your request?"

Kreta cleared his throat. "I'd actually like permission to head to Dimension 002 and capture them myself. Before they get any further. I don't know if they're lucky, smart, or if the Horizons at Silph were idiots, but it seems foolish to underestimate them."

"Is this about Ike giving you that scar across your chest?"

Kreta felt heat rush to his face. "Well, partially. Yeah. I mean, I want to stop them, but - "

"I can't let you go." Kreta's shoulders sagged. He'd feared as much. "You're wounded. Even with your special abilities, we'd just lose a valuable member of Horizon."

"I didn't mean I was going _now_," Kreta explained, desperate. "But once I've recovered enough - "

Pane laughed. "Your time will come, and I'll let you know when it does. If we capture them, I'll even lock you and Ike in a wide room alone with each other so you can duke it out. But for now, I want you around here, recuperating. I'll give you some assignments when you're back 100%. Deal?"

Kreta sighed. "Yeah. Deal." As he sat in silence, an almost random thought occurred to him. "So, uh, your fight with Crazy Hand...how'd that go?"

For once, Pane looked a little depressed. "The same as Master Hand. I let him exhaust his move arsenal, but when I saw that's all he had, I just stunned him and had him put in forced sleep. I was hoping they'd be a bit more of a challenge." He returned his focus to Kreta. "Well, that's all. You are dismissed. Go check up on the Foreign Energy Research status, will you? Rigald is supposed to bring a report at some point."

Kreta stood up. "You really think the Battlefield energy is going to help? With all _your_ abilities?"

Pane shook his head slowly. "Not with my abilities, no. But somehow, I get the feeling that...it'll help." He glanced back up at Kreta. Kreta took his cue and left.

_Your time will come, and I'll let you know when it does._ That wasn't the answer Kreta had been hoping for. The truth was, he was furious about Ike making a fool of him. He'd let his guard down for one moment, and it bit him in the butt. And it wasn't so much Horizon Kreta wanted to redeem himself to. Ike was probably thinking he was so strong and clever, escaping from three Admins at once and almost fatally wounding Kreta. Kreta wanted to show him how wrong he was.

He reentered the academy and headed for the glass doors on the wall opposite him. The doors led straight into what looked like a long sports field of some sort. The field was now subject to all sorts of changes, evidenced by the tents and weapon-covered tables around the grass. Kreta pushed the doors open and stepped outside again. The sports field served mainly as the headquarters for the research team. There was already an area dedicated to research in the Healing Room, but Pane had been taken with the unique energy supporting a floating arena called Battlefield. Kreta didn't understand all of it, but when Pane said "jump," you didn't say "how high" - you just jumped.

Horizon members with white outfits strode about the field, carrying equipment and notes. Most other Horizons didn't wear the black outfits they'd worn on the day of the invasion. Traditionally, members would wear casual clothes, the better to avert suspicion. Admins were expected to dress a little more appropriately to their position, so Kreta typically wore camouflage pants and a brown long-tailed coat Pane-style, as he was now.

As Kreta looked for a transport platform to carry him to Battlefield, he thought about Horizon's past. They didn't have to worry about attacks or inspections here. Back in their own dimension, their hideouts had been spotted a bunch of times, but Pane had always quickly shown up to send the government packing. They would still have to find a new hideout pretty soon, but after awhile, the government realized Pane wasn't one to be taken lightly. Attacks grew less common after that.

Kreta found the metallic round platform next to a tent on the right side of the field and stepped onto it. It instantly took him upwards, gaining speed rapidly. Battlefield was a long way up. He didn't know what lunatics would fight so casually on a relatively small arena, especially one that was so high up you could barely see it, but it was a good subject of research.

A few moments later, the platform slowed and changed direction, taking him to a floating rectangular structure made out of what appeared to be stone. Three smaller stone platforms hovered above it in a triangular pattern. A few researchers were at work, careful not to get too close to the edge. One researcher was standing in a specialized, sided platform beneath Battlefield, where a purple energy core was located. This core was the "foreign energy" Pane had spoken of.

"Hey, Rigald!" Kreta yelled. He walked onto Battlefield and waited for the researcher working beneath the arena to maneuver his platform around.

The scientist had a scruffy brown beard and a very small bald spot on top of his head. His white uniform had longer coattails than the other researchers, indicating his status as an Admin. He pushed his glasses higher up his nose. "Hello, Kreta. Are you sure you should be up?"

"Don't worry about it, Rigald. How's the research going?"

Rigald sighed. "Painfully slow. The only thing we've learned about Battlefield's energy is that it's vastly different from anything else we've seen. I get the impression it's not in our dimension anywhere. I'd like to take a sample of it and study it, but I don't know how the core would react to that. We'll need Pane's permission to proceed with something like that."

"Well, good. It gives me something to bring back to Pane." He picked up a tool and studied it absentmindedly. "What's your take on it?"

Rigald climbed out of the platform. "How do you mean?"

"The energy. Can we use it for attack? Convenience energy? Healing purposes?" Kreta squeezed on the tool and accidentally broke it. He scowled at the shards in his palm.

Rigald sighed and scooped the pieces into his hand. "I _do_ wish you would be careful with your hands, Kreta. This stuff isn't inexpensive."

Kreta grunted. "So, your take. What can we use the energy for?"

With nowhere else to put them, Rigald stuffed the shards into his coat pocket. "Honestly? Anything at this point. It's like asking what electricity can be used for. But whatever we decide to do with it, it's potent stuff." His gaze wandered to a set of floating stands made for spectators off to the side. "I hope we can figure out the big Teleporter soon. Taking transport platforms up here is such a pain in the you-know-what."

Kreta patted Rigald on the shoulder. "All good things come with waiting. I'm off to give Pane a thoroughly-detailed report about the groundbreaking research going on here." Rigald snorted. "Keep it at. Something will come of this."

He hopped back onto the transport platform and let it zip him away. All good things came with waiting...yeah, that was it. He'd get his chance to fight Ike at full power someday. The sooner, the better. Even if Ike was captured first, Pane said he would arrange a duel between them.

Thinking about it, something struck Kreta as odd. Something Pane had said.

_If we capture them, I'll even lock you and Ike in a wide room alone with each other so you can duke it out_.

'If'? Pane wasn't sure?

Maybe it was just the wrong choice of words on Pane's part, but if Kreta knew him at all, there might be something else on the boss's mind. He pondered Horizon's future as the platform took him down.


	13. Chapter 11: The Frozen Mountain

Ike kicked a snowball with his boot and watched it tumble down the slope. The sun was beginning to set, which was bad news for the weather. It was already ten zillion below zero (or so it felt). Night would just increase the cold.

After some toying around with the prototype teleporter, they'd wound up on a frosty mountain within Dimension 002. He had no idea where exactly they were, but they could see much of the landscape from their position. To the south was a wide, grassy plain, although huge chunks of rock and a few steep cliffs would make it difficult to traverse. Beyond the plain was a large, red-roofed castle. Ike understood it to be the center of the Mushroom Kingdom.

The east was hard to make out, but it appeared to end in some sort of barren, dusty wasteland, separated from the castle by a dark and foreboding forest. North was more snow, and Ike thought he spied an ocean. To the west was a wide clump of trees. It was all beautiful scenery, but Ike would gladly forget it all just to be off the frigid mountain.

The teleporter had dropped them off near the top of the mountain. The place was tall, steep, icy, and full of drop-off cliffs, which made travel even harder. The sky had been a perfect blue above them, allowing the sun to at least ward off some of the cold. Purple now dominated the heavens as the sun prepared to sleep.

_Yeah, heaven,_ Ike thought. _Probably because that's where we'll be going when this blizzard kills us._

Ike and Pit were still in their civilian clothing; it was too cold to wear their normal clothes, and Ike found himself wishing he'd just given in long ago and let Mist patch up the holes in his stuff. Now he had to shiver in someone else's clothes because of his man pride.

Pit carefully slid down the slope, dragging his fingers along the snow to keep his balance. Ike trotted down at a slower pace. The angel turned and looked up at him. "You coming?"

"I know. Give me a minute."

Pit waited for Ike to reach the bottom of the slope before resuming his walk. The upcoming section of the mountain pass was narrow, and the outer edge led to an eighty-foot drop that would kill Pit if he couldn't take his shirt off in time and certainly kill Ike on impact.

Ike sighed. "How much farther do you think we have to go?"

Pit shrugged. "I think we're halfway down the mountain. Maybe more, maybe less. I'm hating the cold, though."

Silence passed for a moment. Ike knew what was coming and hoped Pit wouldn't say it. He was stressed enough as it was.

"You know," Pit added cautiously, "if you'd just listened to what I'd said from the beginning, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Ike strode past him and leaned into the inner wall. "Give it a rest, Pit."

"Well hey," Pit continued, "I'm just saying you could listen the next time an angel speaks to you face-to-face. It could help. We usually know what we're doing."

Ike tried to divert his focus to not tumbling over the edge of the cliff. "For the last time, Pit, _there was no Engage button._ The instruction manual told us to hit the Engage button, and there wasn't one. I used my common sense, and I was accidentally wrong."

"The teleporter didn't have a button that _said_ Engage," Pit clarified, joining Ike on the thin pass. "But the diagram pointed to a specific button on the teleporter - the button that I, incidentally, told you to press - which you didn't - in reference to the Engage button in question. Had we pressed that, our landing location would probably be a lot closer to that castle."

Ike inched his feet along the walls. The pass wasn't more than a foot wide now. "Grow a brain, Pit. Is it a sin that I happened to press the big, red, important-looking button directly beside the one in the diagram? It was an honest mistake."

"I know that," said Pit. If he was angry, he was doing a good job at disguising it. "But in the future, perhaps you should consider bending your ear to the one who was right the first time. My angel instinct tells me it'll help us considerably later on."

Ike bit back a retort. _Angel instinct._ The point was taken, but Ike was tired of hearing it. Sure, he'd listen to Pit the next time. Maybe. A general knowledge of futuristic technology would have helped. The greatest irritation about Pit's spiel was that it was mostly true. The icing on the cake came in how the Teleporter refused to respond now.

Wind bit at Ike, causing him to grit his teeth in discomfort. He didn't know how they were supposed to survive the night. What few trees they found were naturally wet and covered with snow, which wouldn't make starting a fire easy. He'd already asked if he could jump off the mountain and have Pit catch him before he hit the bottom, but the angel had shot that out of the sky before it had even taken off. Pit could barely fly as it was, and Ike outweighed him by...too much. As Ike's foot nearly slipped off the pass, he wondered if they would even survive until night.

"Have you ever been in cold weather like this?" Ike asked to pass the time.

"Not like this," Pit panted. "Angel Land is a pretty moderate place in terms of weather, and the Underworld had all the characteristics of an armpit. I'm just following your lead."

Ike was familiar with basic outdoors survival, but he'd never been in this exact situation. He supposed they would make burrows into the snow and cover themselves up to preserve warmth, which was not something he had ever done longer than around ten seconds.

Then there was the issue of food. He was going to punch the next Horizon idiot he saw in the nose. Why did they take his food? Was Horizon really that hungry? There were three things in life one would not escape unscathed from if they stood between them and Ike: his friends, his country, and his food. Horizon had violated at least two of them. If the third came to pass, he would make sure nothing was left of them.

The pass widened out and rounded a corner to their right. Ike hugged his body. _I'd kill for a chicken leg right now,_ he thought. _A warm, juicy, tender chicken leg..._

"Not me, I hope," Pit grunted. Ike realized he had spoken out loud. "I am, after all, the only guy next to you. What I could use is a nice hot spring..."

Ike shook his head. "Let's not drive ourselves insane. We've got a long way to go." To his relief, the section of the mountain around the corner widened enough for six of himself to casually walk along. It sloped even steeper than the last part, which was a welcome sight as far as Ike was concerned; the steeper the climb, the closer they were to normal.

As Ike began his descent down the slope, he realized Pit had never shared his "story" with him - he had never shared the reason he was invited to be a Super Smash Brother. Ike looked over his shoulder at him. "Hey, Pit. I just realized...everybody at the academy has some big story to share, right? You said you were the captain of a holy guard. Anything special happen to you combat-wise?"

Pit laughed. "Oh boy, yeah. Twice. I live in a place called Angel Land, where basically, all is right in the world and no one has to worry. As its name implies, that's where we angels reside."

"Sounds _heavenly_."

"You just made a joke! I must be rubbing off on you." Pit exhaled and kicked at snowballs in his way. "Anyway, there was normally nothing to worry about, but disaster strikes from the inside in these cases. Angel Land was ruled by two goddesses - Palutena, the goddess of light - " A proud smile brightened Pit's face as he said it - "...and Medusa, the goddess of darkness."

"Uh-huh."

"But Medusa was a whackjob. She hated humans, hated angels, wasn't fond of Palutena, and really hates me these days. That's if she's alive, which nobody knows for sure. Every time Palutena showed kindness to Angel Land, Medusa would undo it. This continued for awhile until Medusa went and turned all the humans to stone. Palutena couldn't stand Medusa's greed and evil and turned her into a snake woman." He grimaced. "In revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the Underworld and used them to overthrow Angel Land, turn Palutena's soldiers to stone, send them to the Underworld, and hold Palutena captive.

"But that's where I come in. I was one of the angels sent to the Underworld, and Palutena knew I was loyal to her. Medusa stole the three sacred treasures - the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows, and the Wings of Pegasus - as they were pretty much the only combination of weapons that could stop her. Palutena sent me a bow of light with the last of her power and enabled me to escape from her prison."

"That was the bow I saw you use in the Silph Co.?" Ike asked.

"Yup. I traveled all across the Underworld, defeating Medusa's monster buddies and taking the sacred treasures back, and when I had all of them, I stormed the sky temple and came for Medusa's head. She used some big, ugly demon form to fight me, but I won - as I am still here today - and basically set Angel Land right again."

Ike considered Pit's story. "...Wow. I've never been held prisoner before. So you broke out with virtually nothing and used your wits and will to overthrow a goddess of darkness..."

"Yeah, but we're not quite sure if she's dead or just hiding. She hasn't bothered us in a long time." Pit cleared his throat. "And then there was that Orcos business. Some time later, Palutena had a nightmare, which was an omen of when a demon named Orcos would invade Angel Land and be the ruin of everything. To prevent this, she sent me, newly-appointed leader of her army, to train for his arrival. To make things harder, the three sacred treasures I had used against Medusa were scattered all over Angel Land for protection, so I had to hunt them down again. When I'd completed my training, guess what happened?"

"Orcos arrived?"

"Yup. And he turned Palutena to stone, and - "

Ike exhaled in humor. "What is it with Angel Land villains and turning people to stone?"

"I know!" Pit exclaimed. "That's what I've been wondering! Somebody tell me that! But he took Palutena away, and I gave chase. I killed Orcos, Palutena returnd to normal, and Angel Land was free once again. For a long time, it's stayed that way. I know something will happen eventually; right now, we're just waiting for the next uprising."

Ike noticed lights spread out over the land below. He hadn't paid attention to them before, but the darkness of night brought them out. Down to his left at ground level were several dozen tiny balls of yellow light. Were they fires? Who would need all that heat? He squinted his eyes and pointed at the lights. "What are those? If it's going to try and kill us, I'm going to go insane. I've had enough of people trying to stab us in the back."

"Oh, those are just the Star Kids," Pit replied. "Little twerps shouldn't harm us."

Ike slowed his walk and looked at Pit quizzically. "I didn't expect you to have an answer. How do you know what those things are?"

Pit look surprised for a moment, then looked down and sped up. "Uh...lucky guess. Come on, let's keep going."

Ike frowned and matched his stride to Pit's. "What do you mean, 'lucky guess'? You mentioned them by name. What's a Star Kid?"

"I dunno."

"Stop goofing around, Pit. I'm not in the mood for this."

Pit glanced at Ike and shrugged. "Well...they look like stars, and since they're small, they must be kids. You believe that, right?" Ike shook his head slowly. Pit threw his hands into the air and groaned. "Come on, what's it take to look convincing? Are you always this skeptical?"

Ike grabbed Pit's shoulder to keep him from walking. "Only when you give me something to be skeptical about. What are you doing? Have you been here before?"

"Well yeah!" Pit snapped. "I live here!"

"You _live_ here?" Ike repeated, causing Pit to quail slightly. "I thought you said you lived in Angel Land, you little runt!"

Something tore Pit from his grip and tumbled down the slope with him. The two shadows came to a stop fifteen feet away, kicking up snow as they fought with each other. Ike resisted the urge to curse, drew Ettard and ran to the squirming mass, more annoyed than before.

Pit kicked the other figure off of him and stood up, rubbing his chin. Ike's jaw dropped when he saw who the figure was.

Somehow, there were two Pits.

"This guy's crazy!" the first Pit yelled, shuffling sideways as the other Pit strafed around him. "Ike, do something! He's going to kill me!"

"Don't buy it, Ike," the second Pit muttered. "I don't know what he is, but he's not Pit. Don't let this imposter get away."

Ike put his hands on his hips. "Alright, back off, both of you. Tell me what's going on, or I'm going to step in and start splitting heads." The second Pit glared at Ike but softened his stance. The first Pit swallowed nervously. Ike pointed to the inner wall of the mountain. "Line up against that wall. If either of you tries anything stupid - that includes you," he said, nodding to the second Pit, "I'm going to make someone bleed."

The two angels stood against the wall. The second Pit crossed his arms and leaned against the frosty cliff. "You _do_ know which one of us is Pit, right? It should be obvious."

"Yeah, obviously me," the first Pit chimed. The other Pit looked at him as if wishing he could punch him.

Ike stabbed Ettard into the ground. They were wasting time here, and the sun was quickly setting. The chill was only getting worse. He was 99% sure the second Pit was the real one, but he wasn't about to jump to conclusions that might kill him. Pit _could_ be airheaded sometimes. The one he suspected was the fake wrapped his arms around himself on the left. Ike focused on the second Pit to his right. "What the heck are those lights on the ground behind me?"

The second Pit shrugged. "I don't know, fires? Seem awfully yellow to be ordinary fires, though."

Ike turned to the first Pit. "Now, what are Star Kids?" He tapped Ettard's hilt for emphasis.

"I..." He worked his mouth a few times, sweating despite the cold. Ike narrowed his eyes. "Well...Star Kids...you've got to..." He groaned loudly, bent over, and clutched the back of his head. "Oh, come on! I give up! The charade's off now, alright?! How am I supposed to know where you guys even came from? You just randomly waltzed into existence from the top of the mountain, and I never even saw you climb up!"

Ike tilted his head to the side. "So you admit you're not the real Pit."

He glared at Ike. "No, I'm not! I'm just a Duplighost looking for something more entertaining to eat than snowballs and chipmunks. You've got to forgive me!"

Ike motioned for the real Pit to join him. As Pit walked back, the Duplighost enveloped himself in a cloud of purple smoke, creating a small gust of wind. Ike tightened his grip on Ettard in case the Duplighost was about to attack.

When the purple smoke faded, something that looked like it had walked straight out of a cartoon stood against the wall, hyperventilating from stress. It was almost entirely covered by a thick white sheet, obscuring what it may have really looked like. Glowing yellow eyes shone out of two large holes cut out of the front, and a split underneath moved in perfect imitation of a mouth. A tuft of red hair sprouted from the top, and a couple of gray shoes poked out underneath the sheet. The Duplighost wasn't very tall - the dome of its head was level with Ike's chest.

"What in the world is that?" Pit murmured.

"A Duplighost!" the creature screamed. "Do I need to add rudeness to your mountain of flaws?! You couple of freaks show up out of nowhere and don't even feign ignorance long enough for me to get a brief snack!"

"Clear something up for me," Ike interrupted in a threatening voice. "Were you planning on eating us?"

The Duplighost recoiled in puzzlement. "What? No! No no no no! We don't do that kind of stuff!" He slumped and rubbed his head with a covered hand. "I just wanted to see if you had any grub on you. I told you, eating the same thing _over_ and _over_ and _over_ and _over_ - "

Ike laughed darkly. "You're out of luck, then. We've been robbed dry already."

"No way!" The Duplighost stamped his foot, throwing up a small plume of snow. "Are you kidding me? I was looking forward to gumming on something other than Iced Potato tonight!" He stiffened his body. "Wait a minute...how do I know you're not just lying to me to save your food? People do it all the time, or the ones who realize they've been conned do, anyway. Why don't I take a look in your pocket and see what's inside?" The slit beneath his eyes curved upward into a smile as he crept forward.

Ike raised Ettard an inch from the ground and Pit held his right arm out in preparation for summoning Palutena's Bow. The Duplighost stopped in his tracks and frowned. He eyed the large sword for a moment, then spun and ran back up the mountain pass. "Alright, fine, have it your way, you bunch of ungrateful punks! I don't want your food anyway!"

"Not just yet," Ike called. Palutena's Bow appeared in Pit's hand and he readied a Light Arrow faster than he could track. "You have a sacred arrow pointed at your head by an archer who knows how to shoot. I would stop and listen for a moment."

"Actually, I'm aiming at his lower back," Pit corrected. Ike ignored the comment.

The Duplighost slowed and seemed to consider his chances. To Ike's surprise, he started bawling and threw himself onto the ground. "I never wanted to die like this! There are still so many people I want to copy, so many sights I wanted to see! I'll never create any little Duplighosts of my own, will I? It's not fair!"

Ike sighed and sheathed Ettard across his back. The spirits of these things weren't made of much. "We don't want to hurt you. We just want a few answers. Now come back and we'll talk things out."

The Duplighost, still sobbing, got to his feet and trudged back to the two of them. Ike couldn't help but notice how easily spooked these ghosts were. It was ironically pitiful. "I didn't mean anything," the Duplighost mumbled. "Just trying to get by. Being a ghost isn't as easy as most people think."

Pit lowered his bow but kept the shining arrow nocked. Ike crossed his arms to look intimidating, but he didn't want to scare the guy too much. "What are Star Kids?" he asked.

The Duplighost timidly lifted his eyes to meet Ike's. "They're just what their name implies. They're little stars born in Starborn Valley near Shiver Mountain's base. You can see them scattered about the valley now." Ike glanced at the yellow lights down below. He had a hard time imagining stars as tiny living beings. "They're raised by the Ninjis and a few others, and when they're big enough, they join all the other stars in the sky. Heaven knows what they do up there...literally, I guess."

Pit appeared to accept it easily enough. Ike, still unconvinced, was reminded of how different all the dimensions really were. "And these Star Kids are harmless?" he demanded.

"Totally!" the Duplighost insisted. "They may play a prank or two on occasion, but they're entirely innocent. That's what makes them stars." He loosened up when he realized Ike really didn't want to hurt him. "If you're looking for food and lodging, that would be the closest place to start. I'd go down there myself, but, you know...nobody wants a ghost."

Ike pushed aside the pity welling up in him. "The castle in the distance is Princess Peach's castle, right? Is it safe to go there?"

"As far as I know. The princess isn't supposed to be home, though. The villagers in Starborn Valley would be able to tell you more."

"What's the quickest way to Starborn Valley?"

"Jump off a cliff, hope for the best." Ike raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, you could follow this path down, but I take it you and your friend are cold. You wouldn't last long without food and protection." The Duplighost gnawed on its lip, looking incredibly strange considering it was a sheet. "There is...another way down, but it's a trade secret among us Duplighosts and a few others, and I swear they'll iron me alive if they know I told you. We need to keep our secrets, you know?"

Ike rustled Ettard slightly. "You also need to keep your head, do you not?"

The Duplighost twisted his hands together. "Yeah, yeah, alright. Point taken. Just promise not to tell anyone, okay?"

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Yeah. There's a hidden passage nearby that takes you almost anywhere you want on the mountain, so long as you know where to go. Duplighosts use it to waylay travelers a lot - work a little ghostly magic, pop out of nowhere, and bam, you're in someone's wallet. The entrance is a little further up the mountain, but it shouldn't take long to walk there."

"But it's warmer, right?" Pit asked, softening his stance.

The Duplighost nodded fervently. "The tunnels are a bit, eh, complicated, so I can't tell you exactly how to reach the bottom. Just know that darker crystals generally indicate the path is going down, so try to follow those if you can. Might want to watch out for the occasional Frost Piranha, but otherwise, should be smooth sailing... Oh, gosh, I cannot believe I am telling you all this."

"No no, we appreciate it," Pit encouraged.

"They'll iron me alive..."

"You're doing the right thing," Ike assured him. He wanted to get out of the cold as soon as possible. "How do we locate the entrance to these tunnels?"

"I'll just take you there. The entrances are nearly impossible to spot unless you're a Duplighost, so it would be stupid to try and explain the specifics. I'll lead the way if you promise not to behead me."

"I wanted you in the front anyway," said Ike. "I won't hurt you if you don't do anything to warrant it. We just want to get out of the cold and make our way to a good source of information."

The Duplighost hesitantly stepped in front of them and started back up the slope, occasionally looking over his shoulder as if concerned Ike might stab him for fun. Pit glanced at Ike with an unreadable expression, then followed the small white creature. Ike rolled his shoulders and walked after them.

"One thing I'm learning quickly," Ike muttered, "is that we're not safe anywhere. If Horizon's not around, the environment will kill us, and if that doesn't do us in, we have a bunch of ghosts waiting to rob us."

"Make me feel worse, why don't you," the Duplighost said. Ike ignored him.

Pit sighed. "I miss the comforts of my home, but I don't think we're getting back there anytime soon. We need to make sure this Pane guy doesn't do something else inconvenient, like take over the world."

"Forget one world for now, Pit. It's looking like every world is in danger." Ike turned his attention back down to the valley of Star Kids. "And everywhere we go, I feel like somebody's watching and waiting. We're not safe anywhere, Pit."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: First of all, not dead. Secondly, Divided is officially off hiatus. I've rewritten and extended the chapter synopsis, so expect a much improved, more cohesive story the likes of forty or more chapters. If you want me to update sooner than the ridiculous norm, be sure to leave a review; it spurs me on more than you might know.


	14. Chapter 12: Run

The Duplighost led them back up the mountain for only around ten minutes, but it felt uncomfortably longer. Now that warmth and a theoretically safer way down had been proposed, Ike could feel his patience slipping away.

"How much longer?" Ike asked.

"Not far," the Duplighost mumbled. "Everything kind of looks the same around here."

"I thought you took this path all the time," said Pit.

"I do. I just want to make sure I don't walk off a cliff or into a Frost Piranha's den. My cousin Dooper wandered into a strange hole once and came out looking like a big white piece of swiss cheese."

"I hate this place already," Pit groaned.

Ike flexed his fingers. Without adequate protection, he was turning blue. Too much longer, and hypothermia would set in. He was used to camping in the cold, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. "This had better not be a trap, by the way. I normally kill people who lead me into traps."

"It's not!" the Duplighost whined. "Duplighosts usually live on their own unless they're working for someone, and what are we going to build traps out of, snow? My last employer was King Bowser, and he hasn't contacted me since Mario beat him."

Pit rubbed his wings through his shirt, clearly colder than Ike. "Didn't Mario do that all the time? His brother told me of at least seven different incidents."

"See, this is why I have to move!" said the Duplighost. "You never hear anything on this stupid mountain. I thought it was just the one time."

"So why don't you move?" Ike asked.

The Duplighost paused. "I'll get around to it."

"You're lazy."

"I'm not lazy! I just don't get around to things for a few months, is all."

"Need to pack all your traps made of snow?"

"Now you're just rubbing it in." The Duplighost peered closely at a wall, then gave a small, satisfied smile. "Ah, here it is. Told you we were near. Enter through this wall, and you'll be well on your way to the bottom of the mountain and far, far away from me."

It was completely unremarkable. Ike had expected some sort of mark or indentation to make it easier to identify among an in-group, but it looked just as boring as the rest of the mountain. Ike stepped toward it and rubbed his hand along the surface. It didn't feel like anything was behind it.

"You're feeling too high," the Duplighost corrected. "It's lower, more my height. Watch."

The Duplighost lowered his head and charged at the wall. Ike flinched as he cracked his head into solid stone, twitched, and lay unmoving in the snow. Unwilling to break the silence, the only sound for twenty seconds was the whistling of the icy wind.

And somehow, the next thought to pop into Ike's mind was, _I wonder if Duplighosts are edible?_

But the Duplighost slowly creaked back to life a moment later, looking like a moving ball of snow. He shook his head and stared at the wall with dazed eyes, then prodded the lower part gently.

"Or maybe it was a little to the left," he muttered.

He slowly got to his feet and wandered closer to the wall. He pressed on a part of the wall, causing it to swing inward as if on hinges. Ike raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"It's like a doggy door," Pit commented. Ike had no idea what he was talking about.

"Just..." The Duplighost reeled for a moment, still trying to gather its bearings. "Just follow the dark crystals, and try not to go back the way you came. It's really easy to get lost."

"Why don't you guide us yourself?" asked Ike.

The Duplighost glared at a spot slightly to Ike's right. "I'm putting my reputation on the line enough as it is. If anyone sees me leading you personally through the mountain, I'll be turned into a bedsheet. Not to mention we have a sort of mutual understanding with the critters on the mountain, and if they see me with you, they may think I've switched sides and maybe eat me or something. So please grant me this one pardon."

Ike didn't fully understand the problem, but he decided the easily-spooked ghost had done enough for them already. Besides, he wasn't sure he wanted that thing following them around. If he wanted a tour guide, he'd get one when they reached civilization. He nudged the wall-door with his boot and figured he could just barely fit his whole body through.

"I don't know," said Pit, "I think we could use him a bit longer. I like a little direction myself."

Ike sighed and turned to the Duplighost. "Just tell us how to find food on this rock, and we'll be on our way."

"Or we could ignore me again..." Pit began.

The Duplighost slowly tiptoed away from them, clearly eager to leave them as soon as possible. "It's everywhere if you take the time to look. Frost Piranhas are barely kind of edible, and Gulpits usually have food stashed in their dens. Just make sure they don't kill you first. A Gulpit is basically a big blue ball with a huge mouth, so there's no mistaking them. Other than that, snow makes for good water."

"Just don't eat the yellow snow," Pit interjected.

"How far until the bottom of the mountain?" Ike asked.

The Duplighost looked around in thought. "Depends on what path you take. Some are straight shots to the bottom that'll kill the average person... You look like capable people, so I'd say no more than a few hours if you keep at it. It's really not as huge a mountain as it looks at first. Can I go now? Someone's going to see me anytime now."

"Honestly, I've heard enough," Ike said. "We'll chance the rest of it. We just need to get out of the cold - "

"Great, then, see you later!" the Duplighost exclaimed before turning and running away at top speed. "Or not! Hopefully not!"

Ike watched the white form disappear into the snow. He wondered for a moment if letting him go was the right idea, then decided it wasn't worth letting Pit win another one. He'd faced harsher scenarios than this and come through victorious every time.

He nodded toward the wall-door. "You first, Pit. You'll fit easier than I will."

The angel hesitated. "Uh, right. I'll let you know if anything angry and carnivorous is inside. Listen for the high-octave scream."

"I know."

Shaking his head, Pit got onto his belly and pushed the flap open. A glimmer of the bow-generated rings around his arm illuminated a small part of the dark beyond. Ike crouched down to see better but still couldn't see more than a few feet. Bit by bit, Pit squeezed his slender frame in until his feet disappeared and the flap went shut.

"Anything carnivorous yet?" Ike called.

"Well, thanks for disturbing it if there is one," the reply came.

Anxious to get out of the cold, Ike pushed the flap up as far as it would go, just barely seeing Pit's shoes. He waited for Pit to crawl in further, then slipped Ettard inside and pulled himself forward. It wasn't nearly as tight a squeeze as he thought it would have been at first, but he still didn't dare stand up too quickly. Finally, he tucked the last of himself through the flap and felt much of the cold dissipate.

"You can stand up from here," Pit's voice came from ahead. "I can see light."

Grunting, Ike laid Ettard upright and pulled himself to his feet. He whacked his head on the cave ceiling and bit back a curse. "I can stand up here, my eye."

"I meant where I am," Pit corrected. "Sorry about your head. But look."

Ike couldn't see Pit very well, but ahead was a shimmering cylinder of light like a tunnel leading them onward. It appeared to be made of some sort of crystal which gave off bluish light inwardly. Ike didn't see any other path, so he assumed the darker crystal branches would show up later.

"Kinda pretty," Pit commented.

Ike rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, it is. I wish we had more time to admire it, but we do have an everything to save, and Horizon's probably looking for us as it is."

Pit glanced back at the wall-door. "You really think they can find us that easily?"

"I wouldn't put it past them, Pit. You haven't seen what Pane can do."

He strode past Pit carefully and made for the crystal tunnel. It felt a lot more insulated inside at the moment - Ike wondered if the Duplighosts had anything to do with that - but it still wasn't anywhere near warm. He didn't feel like he was in danger of freezing to death anytime soon, so that was a step in the right direction. All the better if they could reach ground level in a matter of hours, though the quicker paths sounded more dangerous.

Ike placed a hand on the side of the crystal tunnel as he approached it. It definitely wasn't ice, and it actually wasn't that cold. Pretty as it was, he couldn't help but feel like something bad would happen if he stayed near it too long. He hastened his walk, trying not to trip over the uneven crystal ground.

The tunnel only went on about thirty feet before turning the corner and abruptly ending. Ike stepped out the tunnel exit and straightened up, trying to get a feel for what was coming next.

The room was roughly fifty feet around and composed of duller elements of the same crystal tunnel they'd just passed through. The crystalline ceiling was seven feet off the ground, high enough for Ike to stand comfortably but low enough to make him claustrophobic. Enough light pervaded the room for Ike to see at least four tunnels branching off the main room, all made of differing shades of crystal.

"Well, this is where it gets fun," Pit mumbled.

"We've just got to find the darker tunnel," said Ike. "See anything?"

They looked in silence for a moment. It only took Ike a moment to realize the problem.

"What defines 'dark'?" he asked, furling his eyebrows in confusion.

The tunnel all the way on the left was significantly duller than any of the others, mostly resembling glass. The second from the right, on the other hand, took on a purplish hue, which was definitely darker than the brighter blue they'd seen. "Dark" was subjective.

"That little idiot," Ike grumbled. "He meant to get us lost."

Pit groaned and held his head back. "This is just like one of those useless instruction manuals that can't tell you how to do anything worth whale puke. How are we supposed to know what dark means?"

Ike looked them over again. The second and fourth ones from the left couldn't be it; they were doubtlessly too bright. That left the dull one and the purple one. They'd have to choose one eventually, and he had no idea how long it would be before Horizon showed up and blew their hopes to pieces.

"Transparent isn't dark," Ike decided. "Let's go with the purple tunnel. If dark indicates color, that has to be it. If it goes up or leads to a dead end, we'll just turn around."

Pit nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I just want to keep moving before my joints freeze in place."

"We've bought ourselves a good bit of time before that happens. Besides, if the paths are as rough as that Duplighost said they were, we'll work up a sweat before long."

They started toward the purple tunnel. Ike glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was following them. He was upset enough already.

"Ike, stop for a second," Pit said, holding his arm in front of Ike.

Ike glared at him. "Now what - "

He was interrupted by a blue form bursting from the floor, spraying snow everywhere. Ike jumped back instinctively and held Ettard higher, preparing for a strike. Pit readied a shining arrow and pointed it at the mass.

It looked like a bulbous, light blue plant with massive fangs and, unmistakably, big lips. It had come up from a spot in the ground which had actually been snow, not crystal, but blended in well enough to surprise most travelers. The plant had no eyes but clearly knew where its targets were. It was very nearly Ike's height. It parted its jaws, letting a big red tongue hang out.

"What is this thing?" Ike grunted.

Pit stared at the plant where its eyes would have been. "Well, friend or foe?"

The plant opened its jaws, lunged forward, and snapped at Pit. The angel leaped back just in time, barely avoiding the thing's teeth.

"That seals it," said Ike. He took a giant step forward and brought Ettard through the plant's head, knocking off the top chunk and sending it through the air. The half hit the ground and shattered like ice. The body of the plant convulsed, then flopped onto the cave floor and lay still.

"That was brutal," Pit commented.

Ike flicked the plant's remains off his sword. "I'm assuming killing it was the best action, but I don't want to kill too many things here. We don't know what's going to get us in trouble with this world's population."

The shining arrow disappeared in Pit's bowstring. "Oh, that makes sense. But we can still kill them if they attempt to bite our heads off, right?"

"If they try to kill you first, yes, violence is authorized. I'm saying we shouldn't assume killing every creature we meet is a wise idea." He scanned the floor for more snow patches. "Now, about that tunnel."

* * *

The going wasn't a whole lot less stressful from there. The purple path did appear to lead down, so Ike guessed they were right about that. The "darker path" changed in definition slightly each time, from different colors to which path was glowing the least. Over the course of an hour, they'd run into two dead ends and had to go back the way they'd come. Since the sky wasn't visible, Ike had no concept of time, but he supposed the sun had set already. The somewhat warmer interior of the mountain had worn off its novelty, leaving Ike beginning to shudder in spite of the sweat he'd inevitably worked up.

They'd run into six more of the big blue plants, three of them at the same time. Pit dropped one of them with a volley of arrows before they'd caught on and, quicker than Ike had thought possible, zipped underground to reappear at the closest snow patch and attack. They were surprised to learn these things could breathe freezing breath, which Ike and Pit had fortunately avoided long enough to finish the plants off. Ike guessed they were the Frost Piranhas the Duplighost had spoken of, though he'd always figured piranhas were fish.

After an hour and a half, the two of them had stumbled into the mother lode of food...sort of. Starvation had become prevalent after awhile, leading them to search for food off the beaten path. Pit had spotted an odd-looking mini-cave with big tracks going to and from it. While not keen on meeting whatever created the tracks, the needs of the stomach outweighed the logic of the brain, and they entered the dark cave. It led to a dead end, but stuffed in the corner along with a large pile of rocks was a large pile of food. It was mostly frozen, but it appeared edible.

"I found dinner," said Pit, weak but very pleased.

"Dinner," Ike repeated.

They heard stomping and deep grunting behind them. Ike closed his eyes for a brief moment and turned around. Something that was undeniably cute but still threatening loomed over them, filling up the expanse of the mini-cave and bathing it in shadow. Ike had previously wondered if maybe the blue plants were the Gulpits (he still couldn't get over the name), but there was no doubt this was the real thing. It was little more than a tall dark blue ball with tiny eyes and stubby arms and legs. Its jawline implied it had a massive mouth.

"I don't even know anymore," Pit muttered.

"Good evening," Ike began. "We're starving, and we can't find food anywhere else. You wouldn't mind horribly if we took some of your food, would you?"

The Gulpit responded by opening its mouth and lashing out with a massive tongue, seizing the nearest rock about the size of Ike's head and pulling it into its mouth.

Ike raised his eyebrows. "Or you can just eat rocks."

The Gulpit opened its maw again, launching the stone right at Ike. He stepped out of the way just in time, feeling the wind from the rock brush against his face.

"Or you can spit them at us!" Pit yelled. He turned to the food pile. "Aw, he just crushed the 'shrooms."

"I don't want to be a thief," Ike said, "but something tells me we need the food more than this thing does. As far as we know, it doesn't have a collective universe to save."

"No argument there," said Pit, scooping up as many vaguely edible items as he could.

The Gulpit grunted in annoyance and lapped up another rock. Ike grabbed a few items, wanting to leave the creature with something of its own, and rolled under the Gulpit's rock as it rocketed out at him. He accidentally dropped one of the objects but decided it wasn't worth going back for. Ducking instinctively, he stole past the Gulpit and made for the tunnel entrance, zigzagging as he went. The Gulpit focused on him long enough for Pit to zip by from the other side.

"Is it following us?" Ike asked. He probably should have checked himself considering Pit had more food in his arms, but panic and excitement had clouded his judgment a bit.

"It's just standing at the tunnel entrance," Pit replied. "Poor guy, but hey, angels have got to eat. Humans, too."

"Especially this human. Let's take the bluer path on the left there."

Ike's sides felt like they were splitting open at this point. He was used to traveling in the wild quickly, but in the past few days he'd engaged in a humungous battle with a futuristic organization, run from a bunch of wild killer animals, tried to adjust to a new world, been drugged, sneaked through an enemy base, killed an enemy leader, roughed it on a frozen mountain, and run from yet more wild killer animals. He couldn't shake that Horizon was chasing them, and he hadn't done this sort of thing in a long time. Naturally, he was low on sleep and patience.

They stopped running five minutes later when they were sure none of the Gulpit's friends were coming to rain on their parade. Groaning from pain, Ike sat against the crystalline wall and crossed his legs.

"Dinnertime at last," he sighed. "Let's see what we've got here."

Pit sat down across from Ike, looking a little dazed from all the running. He dumped his food on the ground and began sorting through it, relief beginning to cover his face.

Ike picked through what he'd managed. "Some sort of frostbitten vegetable, scrap of meat, heck if I know what this is...hey, Pit, toss me that thing that looks like a turkey."

Pit stared at Ike like he'd asked him to cut off a finger. "But this is my pile."

"We share, Pit. Your mother did teach you sharing, right?"

"If you mean Palutena, yes, she did. I just ignore it sometimes."

Ike was too tired to be surprised. "Palutena is your mother?"

Pit took an excruciatingly loud bite off an iced potato. "Well, kind of. Not all angels have physical parents, so some are crafted out of light like putty. I never met any parents of mine and I never age unless Palutena says so, so I'm guessing I'm one of those made from light."

Ike considered Pit's words and nibbled at a large frozen leaf. "Never met your parents, huh..."

"Hey, humans have parents all the time, right? Did your mother teach you to share, or what?"

Ike smiled wryly as bittersweet memories starting coming back. He leaned his head back against the wall. "Probably at some point. Probably told me a lot of things I should have taken to heart more... Just ignored it sometimes."

A faraway look dawned on Pit's face as he realized part of what Ike was saying. "Oh, I, uh... Sorry."

"Nah, you're fine. I'm still here because of her and father, and that's what matters."

Pit tossed Ike something meaty that looked slightly more substantial than what Ike had. He caught it in midair and turned it over, looking for beefier parts.

"So you were made out of light," Ike continued. "How does that work out? What were your earliest memories?"

Pit shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I was made a baby at first. I wasn't aware of my surroundings for the first few years or so. I hear a lot of light-made angels start as babies."

"Well, all humans do."

"I hear that, too. A lot of people want to take care of angel babies, so we're often left that way for awhile. Palutena just decides when I need to age. That hasn't happened for twenty-five years or so. I guess I'm just too good-looking now to change."

Ike stopped eating. "Twenty-five years? How old are you?"

"Uh...somewhere in the thirties?"

"You look like you're thirteen. Amazing." A strange thought occurred to Ike. "Actually, if Palutena can increase your age, could she make you younger as well?"

Pit paused and looked away slowly, then widened his eyes in shock. "I have no idea, but don't give her any ideas, Ike. I like me the way I am now."

"I am conjuring up some interesting images in my mind right now..."

"Please don't."

Ike smiled, then stopped as he heard something strange resound throughout the cavern. He straightened up, grasping Ettard's hilt in case the sound meant danger. Pit heard it too and looked around the dim room slowly.

"Sounds electronic..." Ike muttered.

Pit's gaze fixed on their backpack Ike had laid beside the wall. "It's the mini-teleporter thing! Get it out!"

Ike mouthed Pit's words, not grasping their meaning at first, then bolted for the backpack and tore it open. He snatched the round, metallic device out, noticing several colored lights blinking rapidly. For a moment, he wondered if he should really be holding it.

"What's it doing?" Pit asked.

Ike shook his head. "Heck if I know. Anything in the manual about this?"

"Where's the manual?"

"I don't know. In the bag. Look, I'm about to start hitting random buttons here. Help me through with this."

Pit started digging through the bag, then flung it away and turned to the portable teleporter. "Does this mean it's working? How'd we warp here?"

Ike tried to control his panic. "Press the bottom left button, wait for the menu... I forget. How do we know this thing won't shut itself - "

"Initiating local environmental scan," a computerized female voice said.

Ike almost dropped the teleporter. "What?"

"It talks," Pit whispered.

A small tube popped up from the teleporter, shining a bright blue light in the center. A moment later, the light extended into a two-sided beam, rotating around the room to illuminate their surroundings. Ike looked around cautiously to make sure nothing aggressive noticed.

"I don't like this," said Pit. "Maybe we should just trash it and move on."

"We're not trashing it," Ike grunted. "This thing could be our only ticket out of here."

"What if it calls the Horizon guys?"

"Then we fight. We can't get rid of this thing."

The light shut off and the tube receded back into the teleporter. It emitted a few more beeps, then fell silent.

"This light wasn't on before," Ike said, pointing to a small orange light on the side of the teleporter. "It says 'auxiliary' right beside it. Any idea what that means?"

Pit threw his hands up. "I don't know."

Ike hated unknowns, and unlike all his previous hazy skirmishes, he couldn't simply fight his way out of it. For all he knew, the teleporter would explode in his hands if he pressed anything, but he knew it could also be a quick way off the mountain.

"Local environmental data collected," the teleporter said. "Sending data to main source."

"Uh oh," Pit mumbled.

"Opening dialogue channel," it continued. "Please wait."

"Pit, if the teleporter points anything dangerous at my head, shoot it," Ike commanded.

"I thought you said trashing it was a bad idea."

"Changed my mind."

"I can't win with you, can I?"

"Enjoying your company?" the teleporter said. Unlike the first voice, this one was definitely male and possessed human emotion. Ike didn't recognize it, but he guessed it wasn't from a friend.

"Who is this?" Ike asked. He set the teleporter on the ground and backed up a bit.

"Just your friendly neighborhood watcher, tracking your every move. We have been for a fair bit, actually. Must be cold over there."

"So send us some blankets," said Pit.

"On orders from Pane, I'll do you one better," the voice responded. "For reasons still unspecified, he doesn't want us swooping in and annihilating your rear ends just yet, so we're just going to test and torment you a bit. There isn't a whole lot of juice left in the prototype portable teleporter you stole, so I'll keep it brief. Start running."

"Start running?" Ike repeated. "Why?"

"Because it amuses us, and I'm supposing you don't want to end up as food for the indigenous life-forms. Be grateful we were generous enough to warn you in advance. I'd have loved to hear your reactions when you saw it without expecting it."

Pit groaned and leaned back. "Come on. Give us five minutes to eat first."

"Too late. You're burning daylight, and it's getting closer. Peace out, you couple of freaks."

"Entering shutdown mode," the female teleporter voice said. "To restore power, please recharge this teleporter at an established charging station."

All lights on the teleporter went out. Ike blinked, sweating more than before. He'd suspected Horizon would try something, but it still didn't ease his conscience when it came.

Pit grabbed a few scraps of food and tore into them. Growling, Ike took one last bitter bite from a frozen vegetable, then threw the rest of the food into the bag and hoisted it over his back. Pit scooped up the rest, a few dropping out from forced clumsiness.

"This way," Ike decided, heading toward a dark blue tunnel.

Ike heard a very slight howling sound far behind them, along the lines of wind or rushing water. It didn't sound like it was close, but Ike didn't think they were too close to the base of the mountain, either. Whatever it was, it could easily catch up to them before they made it down.

"What is that?" Pit asked.

Ike nearly stumbled over a protruding crystal. "I don't know, and you know what? Let's not find out."

They entered another wide nexus. Ike noticed a couple of local creatures at the edges of the room. One, a Gulpit, fled into one of the tunnels. The other, a Frost Piranha, promptly disappeared beneath a snow patch. Ike rose his sword, arm trembling somewhat, ready for the Piranha to rise again. When it didn't, he crossed the room quickly but warily, steering for the tunnel the Gulpit went down.

"Even the animals are retreating," Pit commented.

The howling sound was louder behind them. They still had a good lead on it, Ike thought, but they'd need a quicker path down if they were going to outrun it. And he still didn't know what the heck it was.

The next room was much smaller than the last, only offering two paths. Ike immediately chose the one he perceived as darker and ran into it, silently praying it wasn't a dead end. He noticed the terrain was getting rougher and wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

He heard Pit grunt behind him, followed by a dull thump. Ike turned around and saw Pit had tripped over a crystal. Ike seized him by the arm and hoisted him up, almost carrying him the rest of the way through the tunnel. The rougher terrain was definitely worse, he decided.

They cleared the next several rooms with relative ease. The crystals were clearly getting sharper and more pronounced, and Ike could swear the place was getting more charged somehow. He felt like something was pricking him all over, and a sharp, sour taste pervaded the air. The howling sound was even louder, so whatever it was could move faster than them.

"If only that teleporter didn't die," Pit panted. "Anywhere is better than here right now."

Ike leaned against the wall for a second. His vision was getting blurry and shaky, probably from both exhaustion and the new element to the atmosphere. Pit didn't seem as affected by it, or maybe he was just in better shape.

Pit slapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, we can't stop."

"I know. I'm just dizzy."

"You'll laugh about your dizziness later. Living is more important right now!"

Ike shook his head and pushed himself off the wall. Pit was right. He'd been through worse and survived. He just hated not knowing what he was up against this time, and sticking around long enough to find out could kill him.

The howling was even closer.

Pit supported Ike as they went through the next tunnel. They were definitely getting near the bottom of the mountain. Ike even felt it getting warmer.

The next room almost seemed to be aware of how close they were. Six different paths branched off, and this room was even choppier and rougher than the previous ones. Ike guessed they had no more than ten of these rooms left before they reached the bottom level.

"That...does not look good," Pit muttered, looking behind them.

Ike's heartbeat picked up. Kind of not wanting to look, he turned and followed Pit's gaze.

From around the corner of the tunnel they'd just come from was some sort of creeping black mist. At first glance it didn't look very fast, but it passed over the ground with such persistence and ease that it didn't need much time to move. Little tendrils of mist stretched out from the edge, looking disconcertingly like long, thin fingers. The mist pulsated from within. Ike had never encountered anything like it, and he somehow got the impression he wouldn't walk away if it touched him.

"We'd better move," Pit said quickly.

Ike started to trot toward a tunnel, but something in the corner of the ground caught his attention. Pit hurried to the tunnel and stopped when he realized Ike wasn't following.

"Come on!" Pit yelled.

"There's a hole in the ground," said Ike, pointing to the corner. It was about ten feet around and, to some extent, appeared to have been made by hand.

"Neat. Now let's go."

"We have to go down, Pit, and the quickest way anywhere is a straight line. We won't make it going through the tunnels."

Pit glanced worriedly at the creeping mist. "The bedsheet guy didn't mention anything about holes in the ground. We don't know where it leads. We're taking the tunnels."

Ike strode to the hole and looked into it. It was incredibly rough-hewn, but it went down at least seventy feet. Worthy of note was that he couldn't see the bottom.

"Ike!"

"This hole looks forged. I'm going in."

"Listen to me for once, you oaf! You don't even have wings!"

Ike lightly dropped over the edge and landed on a crystal shelf some ten feet down. Pit's protests were quieter above him. He desperately hoped Pit joined him; he didn't think the angel would make it through the tunnels, especially not on his own. He looked up one more time, and unable to see the black mist, he climbed down a few more shelves.

The bottom was more visible now. Actually, on closer inspection, it looked like a choppy slope leading beneath the wall on his right. _This hole had better end soon,_ thought Ike. _One wrong move and I'm dead._

He hopped onto part of the wall next to him and slid down about ten more feet, coming to a stop on a precariously short ledge. His right foot slipped off, pulling him down even further. He grabbed the ledge at the last moment, dangling with one arm.

Something white and fluffy landed on a shelf on the wall opposite him. "Curse me and my heroics," the form muttered.

Pit had taken his shirt off, revealing his feathery white wings. He was surprisingly well-muscled for his size, but being shirtless was clearly making him colder. He glared at Ike.

"Glad you could join me," Ike grunted, struggling with the ledge.

"Yeah, not for long," Pit replied, pointing up. The black mist had just reached the top of the hole. The tendrils curled over the edge like it was crawling its way in. "I can fly down there pretty easily, but I don't know how you're planning to do this."

"Give me a minute."

"More like a second. We don't have long."

Ike kicked off the wall and grabbed onto another ledge farther down. He misjudged his fatigue and instantly let go of the ledge, plummeting down the middle of the hole. He let out a loud curse, unable to restrain himself.

Pit dove off his shelf and wrapped his arms underneath Ike's shoulders, slowing his descent. Ike planted his feet on a slope and allowed himself to slide down it for another fifteen feet or so while Pit glided to another ledge.

They were just about at the turning point of the hole. The mist had reached the midway point, blocking out the view above. Ike wiped the sweat off his brow. He didn't know if he had enough energy to make it. And worst of all, going down the hole was his idea.

"I'm going on ahead," said Pit. "Be careful going down."

Pit hopped off his ledge, flapping his wings to slow his fall. Ike lowered himself over the edge he'd come to and dropped the rest of the fifteen feet down, narrowly avoiding landing on a particularly sharp crystal. The way forward went vaguely down but was mostly flat and concealed behind a low ceiling. Pit ducked underneath the ceiling and disappeared from view. To Ike's horror, the black mist had caught up to them significantly, howling louder than ever. He followed Pit beneath the low ceiling, forcing his tired limbs to respond at the appropriate strength level.

The low ceiling continued for another thirty feet or so. Ike had to crawl on all fours at a couple of points. To his slight relief, he'd put a good amount of distance between himself and the mist.

The ceiling raised back up about ten feet later. Ike straightened up and lumbered forward as quickly as he could, catching Pit rounding a corner. The sour taste and prickly feeling was almost overwhelming at this point.

They continued for another minute or so, struggling through the uncooperative terrain. Ike estimated they'd put about two minutes between them and the mist. Perhaps they could make it after all.

All hope was nearly dashed to pieces when Ike bumped into Pit, staring at the one thing he'd feared more than the mist then.

"No," Ike muttered.

"A freaking dead end."

A large clump of crystals blocked off the way forward. Judging by the shape of the environment around it, Ike guessed it was a cave-in.

Pit stared at Ike. "Any ideas?"

Ike backed up and put his hands on his hips. There had to be a way out. There had always been a way out for him before. "This looks like a cave-in," Ike started. "And if this tunnel was hewn out manually, it must have an exit beyond this. We just need to clear out the rubble."

"Finally, a brute-violence solution!" Pit exclaimed. He kicked at the crystal rubble, producing a loud smacking sound as virtually nothing happened.

"Stand back," Ike warned Pit. He raised Ettard as high as he could given the low ceiling and swung at the rubble repeatedly, trying to aim for the same spot each time. He managed to knock a few pieces loose, mostly small edges. "Pit, check on the mist for me."

Pit crouched as Ike continued to beat on the rubble, occasionally throwing a kick in for more direct force. "Holy Monoeye!" Pit shouted.

Ike looked over his shoulder. "Not good?"

"Really bad. This stuff travels quickly in tight spaces."

"Too bad we can't," Ike groaned.

"Let me take over. Palutena's weapons are powerful, and I can probably strike faster. I'll need you to throw in some brute force every now and then."

Ike backed away from the rubble. "Your call."

Pit separated his bow into the twin blades and pounded relentlessly on the rubble, moving twice as fast as Ike had. Ike bent down and looked beneath the low ceiling they'd come from. 'Not good' was right: Ike's initial time estimate had been off. They had twenty seconds remaining at best.

"Alright, now kick!" Pit commanded.

Ike backed up and plunged his foot into the rubble. A few more pieces knocked loose.

"Kick where I weakened it!" said Pit.

Desperate, Ike located Pit's slashes and kicked with all his might. The rubble shook, knocking several bigger pieces loose.

"One more time!" Pit yelled.

Ike threw his foot into the rubble, producing a smaller payoff than his last kick. Pit gestured for him to stand back again and resumed beating on the rubble.

Ike backed up a few steps and inexplicably lost the feeling in his left ankle. Shocked, he shuffled forward and looked behind him. The mist had come through the narrow tunnel and billowed behind them, blocking off any escape. Ike had accidentally put part of his foot into it, resulting in a loss of feeling. He found he could still move it, but he had absolutely no desire to see what effect the mist had on the whole body.

"Again! Kick it again!" Pit shouted.

Knowing they had mere seconds, Ike ran to the rubble and threw himself completely into the kick. The entire top part of the crystal wall fell apart, leaving enough room for a thin person to crawl through. For good measure, he gave the rubble one more kick, opening up more room on the bottom right.

"We did it!" Pit cheered. "Let's go!"

The two of them cleared the rubble and ran as fast as their tired legs would take them. They put more space between them and the mist, though Ike knew the lead wouldn't amount to much. The tunnel curved to the left and leveled off, being smoother and wider than what came before them. Ike took that as a positive sign and reinforced the strength in his limbs.

The tunnel finally opened into a square room constructed of frozen bricks, definitely made by hand. The only thing in the room was a large, frosted blue open-top pipe in the center and a sign next to it which read, "Within this pipe lies the secret entrance to yonder Shiver City. None of Gulpit, Piranha, Bowser, or especially Duplighost alliance shall enter this pipe. Violators shall be clubbed over the head with a mallet. Survivors shall be clubbed over the head with a mallet a second time."

"What does that say?" Pit asked.

"If you're evil, go away. I don't see another way out, so in we go."

Taking one last look behind him, Ike jumped into the pipe, followed soon after by Pit. The pipe was just barely big enough to fit him comfortably; actually, it kind of seemed like it expanded just for him. He really hoped he hadn't jumped into another death trap. The promise of a Shiver City at least sounded nice.

The pipe seemed to speed his descent automatically, causing the narrow interior to zip by him frighteningly fast. Pit began yelling behind him, and before long, Ike found himself unable to suppress a long shout. _This is it - the next few seconds will either save me or kill me._

In the midst of all the madness, Ike realized the pipe had actually changed directions and was now taking them horizontally, winding through the underground at breakneck speed. Ike wasn't claustrophobic, but even he started to feel uneasy about how packed in they were.

The pipe levelled out instantly, and something boosted Ike up from his feet. He was zooming upward now, and if there was no opening at the top, his skull was going to shatter like an egg -

Ike suddenly felt brisk outdoor air whipping past his face. He tumbled onto ground, rolling over and over again in the snow, barely even aware of where he was. A few seconds later, he came to a stop on his back, staring up at the clear night sky. Pit came to a stop somewhere behind him, kicking a small amount of snow onto Ike.

"Where are we?" Ike whispered.

Pit groaned. "My eyes. That was way too fast."

Ike forced himself to sit up and looked around. The mountain was a good distance behind them, towering over them intimidatingly, but they were definitely off of it. The pipe they had just burst from was nowhere to be found. They were in the midst of a bunch of snow-covered trees. Ahead of them, however, was a large town, full of fair-sized houses with illuminated windows. Ike couldn't see the full extent of it, but he knew it must mean rest, food, and no one trying to murder them.

"Is the mist still following us?" Pit asked.

Ike wiped his eyes, then flung the snow off his hand. "How can it? The pipe we came from is gone. Now let's go find ourselves somewhere to stay. We need food, you need a shirt, and I need time to clear my mind."

Pit rolled to his feet. "A shirt would be good right now. I'm not used to the cold."

Brushing himself off, Ike stood up and walked to the town entrance. He was cold, tired, hungry, sore, and most of all, confused. For once, he might actually get a chance to rest and make some sense of what was happening.


	15. Chapter 13: Mushrooms

Ike awoke with a start. He was on a wooden floor, staring up at the ceiling. Somewhere behind him, a dying fire crackled, providing him with slightly more warmth than he would have wished for with a blanket draped over him. Judging by the light in the room, it was morning. He started to panic when he couldn't remember how he got there.

Then it hit him: he was in Shiver City, safe and sound. They'd arrived at what apparently passed for an inn, and since the owners had evidently decided one bed was enough to care for a populace, Ike had taken the floor and allowed Pit to take the bed. As far as he was aware, the small inn had only one room and was built like a cabin.

The events of the previous night had been crazy. Ike sat up, fighting off a sudden headache and pangs all over his body. Running from the black mist seemed like a distant nightmare now, and the coldness had left his body. They had stumbled into the edge of Shiver City, where the gatekeeper had given them a thoroughly lazy but friendly interrogation and allowed them into the city boundaries, directing them to what Ike had supposed was the inn. It was all for the best: Pit was turning blue from lack of a shirt, which he had conveniently left back on the mountain.

Shaking his head to clear his mind of sleep, Ike realized he'd come to a dilemma he'd been putting off for awhile. He'd found Pit, killed a Horizon Admin, and stolen a portable teleporter which was now defunct. What did he do now? The "watcher" that had contacted them had made it clear they could come in and kill or capture them whenever they wanted. Preparing for a superior enemy that could arrive anywhere at anytime basically reduced all strategies to "make it to the next city and hope for the best."

Not to mention _the teleporter was defunct_. Worst case scenario, Ike and Pit were trapped in this dimension forever, unable to see their friends and family again, or they died trying to find a way back. The thought almost made him sick.

"You're up," Pit mumbled.

Ike glanced at Pit. He was half-hanging out of his bed and clearly still groggy. "Barely. How'd you sleep?"

"Like a newborn angel babe. Just give me another year to sleep it off, huh?"

"I hear you." Ike stretched upwards, making at least five places on his body pop. He grunted in painful satisfaction. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I need another year of sleep. Please, can we stay here another year?"

Ike sighed. "No."

"Darn it."

A gentle knock came from the door. Used to everything in the last few days trying to kill him, Ike instinctively looked for Ettard and found it propped up against the wall in the corner. Before he could reach it, the door opened slowly, and the owner of the inn came in backwards.

There was something else Ike had forgotten to take into consideration: all the citizens of Shiver City were either penguins or fungi.

The owner was about chest-high to Ike and was essentially a living mushroom. The top of his head expanded and rounded like a mushroom cap, white with big red dots (which, according to Mist, bright colors usually indicated poison, but Ike wasn't sure how far to take that with this guy). The rest of him was otherwise very normal, looking like a small human with peachy skin and a small, pleasant face. This particular mushroom-man was dressed in a thick blue coat and a wooly brown hat that encompassed his head and hung down to his chin. Overall, very cute, but still something that would've sent Ike into a heart attack upon waking up if he hadn't seen it the night before.

The mushroom-man blinked in surprise and smiled. "Oh, you're both up! I'm surprised you rose this early considering how weary you looked yesterday."

'Rose' was subjective. Pit looked half-dead, and Ike still wasn't completely sure he was awake.

Ike rubbed his eyes. "How long were we out?"

The mushroom-man paused. Ike realized he was carrying a tray of food. "Well, let's see, you came in about...midnight...and it's eleven in the morning now, so about eleven hours."

Pit stirred slightly. "Is that food I see?"

The mushroom-man smiled again. "Indeed it is, and all for you. And Ike, of course. We have some roast beef here, mashed Iced Potato after it was thawed out, a few turnips, and two glasses of orange juice. If you need anything extra, just give the word and I'll do what I can."

Ike began to salivate. He hadn't had a full meal since the raid on the academy. Pit slowly drooped out of his bed and fell to the floor with a dull thump, then very slowly began to scoot toward the mushroom-man.

"No need," the mushroom-man said. "I'll come to you. The Toad House's slogan is 'refresh your body and soul,' so don't feel like you have to exert your tired bodies more than you must."

"Toad House?" Ike repeated. "I don't see any toads."

The mushroom-man blinked in surprise again but didn't seem too offended. "Well, I'm one, of course. Shiver City is mostly penguin-populated, but you can find Toad Houses almost anywhere."

Ike forced his tired brain to keep up. "So you're a...frog...?"

This time the mushroom-man laughed. "No, 'toad' as in 'toadstool.' The primary race of the Mushroom Kingdom. I can see you're not exactly from around here."

"You could say that." Ike accepted a plate from the 'Toad' and dug in without waiting for cutlery to appear. The roast beef was suddenly the best thing in the world to him. He had to suppress a strange inner desire to begin eating the plate.

The Toad handed Pit his portion and gave the two of them cutlery. Pit worked himself to a sitting position and sat crosslegged around the plate as if to protect it from intruders.

The Toad sat in a wooden chair in the corner. "So, now that you're awake and at least better-rested, I feel inclined to ask, and no, you don't have to give me a response...where are you from?"

Ike had already finished his roast beef and started working on his potatoes. "We're from...afar. I can't really explain where we're from in detail, but whatever you take for granted in this place is probably news to us."

The Toad looked at Pit with interest. Ike suddenly realized how strange it must be to have an angel just up and appear at your Toad House. "He's from another place altogether," Ike continued. "We don't come from the same place. We're just passing through here on our way to..."

Pit stared at Ike with half-closed eyes. "On our way to what?"

Ike ate a turnip whole to buy him time to answer. "Not sure yet." He looked at the Toad. "Where do we go to find the latest news around here?"

The Toad straightened as if remembering something. "Ah, right here." He pulled out a folded up newspaper from behind him and laid it before Ike. "Comes out every week with the latest on what's going on in the kingdom. That's my copy right there, but I can get you some more if you want your own. And since you're new to the area, there are some maps I could provide you with..."

"That would be very helpful." Ike set his plate aside, silently wishing there was more. "Though if you tell me where to go, I can get some of the supplies myself. I don't want to stay here long."

"I want to stay here forever," Pit muttered.

Ike's heart sank a little when he realized something. "We, um...don't have any money. I don't think there's a way we can pay you for your services."

The Toad waved his hand. "Toad Houses are free. It's our pleasure to bring rest and healing to the community."

Ike relaxed somewhat. _Though maybe that explains the one bed,_ he thought. "Thank you. I appreciate that. We still can't buy any supplies, though, and I don't want to chance it on the road too much."

The Toad scratched his chin in thought. "I can give you some maps and a little food, but my finances can only go so far... Maybe if you talk to the mayor about your situation, he can give you some things for your trip, but that depends on whether or not he thinks it's worth it. He does have a city to look after."

Ike considered their predicament. "We should only need food and information. I can probably scrounge up the rest myself. Sorry, but would you mind giving us a little time to talk in private? Is there anywhere we can go to do that?"

"Certainly," the Toad said. He hopped off the chair and headed for the door. "I'll just leave the two of you in here. I have some other things to tend to, so I may not be immediately available. You can probably find me in the local store." He opened the door, letting a wave of icy air in. "I'll bring some maps for you when I come back. Until then, be sure to get plenty of rest!"

The door closed. Ike picked up the newspaper and began to study it.

"So what should we do?" Pit asked.

"I'm working on it," Ike muttered. "We have no directions or real knowledge of this dimension, so we'll have to wait for that Toad to return. I'm thinking we should head for the castle we saw; if anywhere is going to give us any clues, it'll be there."

The newspaper didn't tell him much useful besides a few special sales and the mayor of some southern town changing his name to "Jeremy." Ike looked for anything that could possibly be related to Horizon, but nothing stood out, although worth noting was that Princess Peach, one of the Super Smash Bros. and evidently the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, was still gone on her "indefinite vacation" while her steward managed governmental affairs in her absence.

"Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something," Pit said after awhile.

Ike looked up from the newspaper. "What?"

"We're probably going to be on this adventure for awhile. It's going to be pretty hard with just the two of us, so we'll have to work together to get anything done."

"Yeah."

"Back when we were on the mountain, I said some stuff that might've helped. And I know you're a military general and you know your stuff, but so am I. Captain, anyway. You got us through yesterday, and I'm really, really grateful for that since I really, really didn't want to touch that mist. But I need to know you can trust me in the future. We'll have to trust each other to get this thing done."

Ike first felt a wave of anger, then an immediate pang of guilt. Pit was right; Ike had more or less been dragging Pit along, not working with him. They had gotten lucky yesterday by getting through the cave-in, and in retrospect, taking a more normal path down the mountain probably would have been safer and significantly less stressful. And in light of it all, Pit still had the decency to be polite about it.

"You're right," Ike said. "I mean, I've... I've always traveled with a group, so they've always given me advice, and whenever I'm on my own, it's anything goes, so... Sorry. I'll do better in the future."

"Hey, I don't need an apology," Pit responded. He appeared to be waking up a bit. "I just want to know that from now on, we're partners."

Ike managed a small smile. "Yeah, we're partners."

* * *

They spent the remainder of the day doing virtually nothing, which Ike and Pit, given how tired they were, were perfectly fine with. The Toad had returned an hour later with another copy of the local newspaper and a handful of various maps, which the two had immediately torn into to absorb as much information as possible. Pit had volunteered to study the maps only, giving Ike the reasoning that newspapers were boring without all the lines and colors, and as they had just agreed to be total partners, Ike didn't want to argue.

They'd left to explore the town about an hour later, discreetly taking the teleporter with them. Ike suspected Horizon was tracking them through the teleporter, but neither of them wanted to risk losing it. Much to their satisfaction, however, they were able to change into their regular clothes before leaving the Toad House. Ike wrapped his red cape around himself, grateful for the familiarity. Pit was back in his white toga and was already regaining a spring in his step, though the shorts and sandals clearly didn't lend themselves to the snowy climate.

They'd visited a few stores to get a better idea of the dimension's market, and Ike was sorely disappointed they had no money. One particular store sold a plethora of items which Ike was dying to try out on the next Horizon moron that crossed his path.

"Totally easy to use," the store owner had explained to them, showcasing a white snowman doll no higher than Ike's knee. "You pull the hat off, throw it in the air, and it turns huge and falls on your enemies! Highly effective, easy to transport, and known to hit multiple enemies at once, it's completely affordable at only eight coins. Any interest?"

Ike let out a long sigh. "Plenty of interest, just no money." He realized with chagrin he'd never be able to use any of the snowman-related one-liners he'd thought up.

Talking with the store clerk did open up his mind to the possibilities of selling random items for cash, but the only things of value they had with them were their clothes and the teleporter, neither of which they were willing to give up, no matter how attractive the snowman looked. Ike's mind went back to the creatures they'd encountered on the mountain and how they occasionally bore useful parts or items. Given that he was one of Tellius's most preeminent swordsmen and Pit was an angel with a sacred, ultra-portable weapon, he decided scrounging materials might not be too difficult.

The rest of the day, much to Ike's relief, passed without much incidence. Actually, it was the first boring day he could remember in awhile, which he was entirely grateful for, though he still bristled at every shadow for fear a Horizon could jump out of it. The last thing he needed was more black mist. Ike wondered why they didn't just douse them with more of it right now.

The sun was just beginning to set as Ike and Pit reclined in the Toad House. Pit looked like he was mulling something over.

"You know," Pit said, "and I'm sure you've thought of this too, but...why is Horizon so...lazy? I mean, that one guy that spoke to us through the teleporter, didn't he say Pane's orders were the only thing standing between us and imprisonment? Or death? Or worse?"

Ike glanced out the window, watching for the Toad to return with dinner. "Yeah, I've thought about that. Chances are they're listening to us right now."

"If that's true, then screw you, Horizon! You're going down!"

"Atta boy, Pit. But that's a good question, why wouldn't Pane want us in his hands already?"

"If he's like me, he'll still be sleeping in at the academy, too lazy and in awe to busy himself with the rest of us."

"No one is like you, Pit."

"Thanks, Ike."

Ike noticed an orb of white and red moving closer to the house. For the thousandth time, he reached for Ettard on impulse, then relaxed as he realized it was the Toad. "You don't just ignore a bunch of superpowers who want you dead. Pane's powerful, so maybe he's just arrogant, playing us like mice in a maze. That would explain sending us the mist and not, say, an army of monsters, or placing the mist tactically to trap us."

Pit let a few moments of silence pass, mulling over the ramifications. "That's kind of nerve-wracking. We can't ever relax since we never know what they're going to pull or when. What's to stop them from sending a bunch of their goons after us now, or releasing the mist straight into the Toad House?" Pit fidgeted on the bed.

Ike raised his eyebrows for a moment. He wondered what Soren, his tactician, would suggest. "If it's really for their own entertainment, they may just be waiting for a golden opportunity to release something and have a good laugh... But Pane never struck me as a guy who'd do something without a reason. He's got something fermenting in his mind that requires timing. What I'd give to find out what it was."

"Sounds like even the other members of Horizon don't know what's going on," Pit stated, "and that's kind of what scares me. What kind of villain doesn't communicate these things to his goons?"

Ike recalled something the Admin they'd fought at the Silph Co. had told them: _Pane is a man who keeps to himself and never tells anybody more than they need to know._ Would Pane really be so callous as to hide such basic information from his underlings? How did Horizon even survive?

"We've got a lot to learn," Ike muttered. He turned more toward Pit. "But here's what we're going to do. Remember what that Admin said about Dimension...whatever number? Here?" Pit frowned and shook his head slowly. Ike thought of a way to get around the question - he didn't want Horizon picking up on their plans. "It was about getting information. If we did that, we could learn a little more. Remember?"

The question stewed in Pit's mind a second longer before it finally clicked. "Oh yeah, the part about where we're supposed to - "

"Pit."

"Oh, right. Sorry. Yeah, I remember that. So where are we supposed to go?"

Ike sat up straighter. "Well, if you - "

The door opened slowly, showering them with frigid air. The Toad backed in with another tray of food, somewhat snow-covered but still warm enough to eat. Ike's belly grumbled in anticipation.

"Dinnertime," the Toad chimed. "Made specially for you, we have sauteed mushroom, roasted..."

"Whatever it is," Ike said, "I'm sure we'll enjoy it. Thanks again for your generosity."

When Ike and Pit had accepted their portions, the Toad bowed out and told them he was heading for his own home nearby. Ike bade him goodnight, then returned to his conversation with Pit.

"As I was saying, the city around Peach's Castle would be a good place to start. That's where the rumors will come pouring in, and we'll have a better point of reference there. That's also probably where Horizon will hang around the most, so we'll have to be on our guards, and it'll most likely place us closer to our target. Horizon being as omnipresent as they are, we'll just have to make it all up as we go along."

Pit laid back on the bed. "I'm glad we took today to sleep in, but after everything they've done, I'm really itching for another tussle with that Horizon. Someone needs to put them in their place - which is beneath our feet - and the sooner the better."

Ike began to dissect his food. "All in good time, Pit. They'll get what's coming to them. Including Pane."

* * *

There was little planning from that point, as the two of them still had barely any idea where they were or what to expect. Knowing they were taking up valuable space in the Toad House and probably drawing attention, they left by sunrise the following morning, bidding farewell only to the Toad who had taken care of them. Ike was concerned that they had no money and little more than a few half-edible morsels from the mountain, but he'd been in worse, and Pit seemed like a hardy individual.

According to the Toad, the quickest and easiest way to Toad Town, the area around Peach's Castle, was through another "warp pipe" located in a clearing a little west of Shiver City. It did, however, open up to a sewer, which would naturally make travel unpleasant for obvious reasons. Ike and Pit were both tired of the cold and speed was a concern, so they had few complaints.

They didn't meet nearly as much resistance on the snowy road as they did in the mountain, and the weather wasn't in blizzard conditions to boot. Ike had to put a Frost Piranha in its place, scaring off its carnivorous floral brethren in the process, but they were otherwise unharmed, and they got a few more (arguably) edible Piranha leaves in the process.

A mere twenty minutes later, they stumbled across a blue pipe sticking out of the ground, so covered up by snow it was easily mistaken for a common drift. Ike wiped some snow off the rim to get a better perspective on it and leaned over, looking at the interior. Nothing but a cylindrical blue substance which stretched on for about fifty feet before succumbing to darkness.

"So..." Pit began, "what do you do if it just doesn't work?"

Ike leaned back. "If I think about it, I'll probably go nuts. It worked the first time, it should work now. You want to go first?"

Pit considered the possibility. "Rock-paper-scissors, best two-out-of-three gets to go second."

Ike rolled his eyes and hopped over the rim of the pipe. "Oh, for the love of..."

If anything, entering a pipe for the second time made him feel worse than the first time since he knew what was coming. He plummeted downward, quickly unable to see the narrow walls around him as some unknown force blasted him through the pipe. What _if_ he got stuck...? No, now wasn't a good time to contemplate that.

The pipe began to twist and turn, causing him to lose his sense of direction. He heard Pit screaming above him, joyfully by the sound of it. Ike wished he had the same viewpoint. As he expected, the pipe seemed infinitely longer than the first one they'd taken. They were crossing the whole countryside, after all.

An agonizingly long time later (which Ike later decided was about two minutes), they quickly slowed down as the pipe took them upwards. After a few more seconds, Ike shot out sideways, tumbling over stonework, then suddenly feeling nothing beneath him. He started to yell, then hit a patch of mushy ice and came screeching to a halt.

"Still got to work on that landing," Ike muttered.

Pit gently glided to the ground beside him. He tapped the edge of his left wing and grinned. "You gotta love 'em, right?"

"They would make life more convenient, yes."

An unpleasant smell hit Ike's nostrils, telling him they were definitely at their destination. They were in a moderately-sized stone room with frost spreading on the walls and floor, cold enough for their breath to still come out in steam. Behind them was a set of stairs leading to a green pipe coming out of the wall, which they had presumably just come from. Several other green pipes were embedded in the walls around them, though none of them looked accessible enough for Ike to get into. Ike's eyes settled on a bigger green pipe in the middle of the room.

"I say we start with that one," Ike decided, nodding toward it. He hated traveling by pipe, but there was no other visible way out.

They hopped into the pipe, pleased (at least Ike was) that it only lasted a second or two before spitting them out at the other end. Ike landed on his feet this time, inches away from a small moat of green, brackish sewage water. Something bubbled once as if to accentuate its repulsiveness.

Ike leaned back instinctively. "Am I to understand _this_ is the easiest and most well-known path to Toad Town?"

Pit fidgeted around behind him. "I just stepped in something purple. I stepped in something purple, and it's not coming off - " Something gooey sprung back off the bottom of Pit's sandal, knocking him backward onto Ike. Ike gripped the edge of the stone floor to keep from plummeting over. Pit's head came to rest on top of his. "You'd think they'd at least spray some Featherbreze down here or something."

"Yeah. Could you stand back up?"

"Oh."

On a brighter note, it was no longer cold. Ike was glad to be done with that snow land, even if it meant trading it for a sewer. He'd had his share of brutally cold nights in Daein and learned to avoid similar scenarios if at all possible.

Ike heard something scuffling around the corner of a passageway. He backed away from the green moat and widened his stance in case he had to move fast.

"Hey, hey, what's happenin' down here?" a scratchy voice called out.

Ike recoiled as something brown and vaguely mushroom-shaped hopped into view. In contrast to the humanoid, friendly-looking Toad, this thing was clearly a lot closer to common fungus, if common fungus had bushy black eyebrows, shrewd eyes, and a couple of pointed teeth jutting from an underbite. The little mushroom entity stood only about a foot and a half tall and seemed to be wearing some sort of grimy cap one might find on a homeless person. It came to a stop a few feet away. Ike realized it had no arms. He wondered how it got the cap on.

"Hey there," Pit greeted uncertainly.

The mushroom-thing ignored Pit. "More humans, eh? What, are the sewers a new tourist trap or something?"

"More humans?" Ike repeated. He turned to Pit. "That sounds ominous."

"Well, strictly speaking I'm not human," Pit mumbled back.

"Don't talk like I ain't here!" the mushroom-thing roared. It had such an abrasive voice for something so little. "I can see you guys are armed out the wazoo, so I ain't gonna mess with you, but respect's gotta be paid where it's due, you know?"

"You're already messing with us," Pit pointed out.

"It's alright," said Ike. He wanted to have an honest conversation, but that seemed nearly impossible with this thing. "We mean no offense. We're just trying to get to Toad Town. You said something about other humans?"

The mushroom-thing snorted, causing a fresh line of mucus to drip from its nasal cavities. Ike forced himself to focus on its eyes. "Well, there ain't too many humans in the Mushroom Kingdom, which I imagine is why it's called the _Mushroom_ Kingdom. We've seen a few of you milling about in Toad Town up above, asking questions and being morons. Typical human tourists."

"Do you know what those humans looked like?" Ike pressed. "Were they causing trouble, or just wandering around?"

"They looked a lot like you, you Goomnut," the mushroom-thing retorted. "Excess less blue in the hair. Look, any more questions and I'm gonna start charging for this stuff." Ike raised an eyebrow. The mushroom-thing laughed. "Relax, just a little sewer Goomba humor. Although some do charge around here. Anyway, I hear these humans have their own little settlement just outside Toad Town. Keep to themselves, usually. Ask too many questions and don't give enough answers. Relatives of yours, or what?"

Ike shook his head. "Probably not, no. We'll keep an eye out for them." He swung his arms a bit to ease the tension. "Well, thanks for the info. We've been a bit lost. Can you tell us how to get to Toad Town?"

The mushroom-thing, which Ike guessed was called a Goomba, rolled its eyes. "You came in the wrong entrance, bud. Easy to get lost from here. Lucky for you, I know all about this place. You're gonna follow that corner around this passageway..."

The Goomba gave them a somewhat detailed description of the way to another pipe that would take them to the surface. Ike was sure he'd forget and hoped Pit was paying attention. Judging by the angel's blank stare at the far wall, he wasn't.

"Just make sure to watch out for the meaner Goombas down here," the Goomba finished. "Some like to scrap, and let me tell you, they're more vicious than a Chain Chomp with a steak tied to its dome."

"Great." Ike nudged Pit. "We'll head in that direction, then. We've got to move, but thanks again for your help. We appreciate it."

The Goomba's gaze softened up as Ike and Pit walked by. "Wait, you're sure you want to go so fast? I don't get such nice people to talk to that often. We could chew the fat a bit at my hidey-hole. I make a mean cup of sock-juice coffee..."

Ike raised a hand, trying to look as normal as possible. "We're grateful for your generosity, but time is of the essence."

The Goomba nodded. "Well, good talking to you. Take care, be safe and all that. By the way, nice wing props, angel boy. Almost look like the real thing. You going cosplaying somewhere, or what?"

Pit smiled in response, then turned to Ike. "He thinks they're props?"

"Ah, better just to ignore it."

Honestly, Ike was happy just to be free from the Goomba. It meant well, he knew, but he couldn't shake the feeling that a few more seconds would have seen it lunging at his kneecap and gnawing the blazes out of it. Besides, if Toad Town was really as peaceful as it sounded, he wanted to be there much more than the cold or the sewers.

"So what do you think?" Ike muttered. "The humans that mushroom guy was talking about, Horizons, Smash Bros., or just average people?"

Pit sighed in relief. "Oh, good, you _do_ think it was a mushroom. Seeing as we're in the sewers and it was all brown and mushy, I was kind of thinking it was a walking - "

"Oh goddess, Pit, don't go there," Ike shuddered.

Pit cleared his throat awkwardly and dodged around a puddle. "I'm inclined to think it was Horizons, as they're pretty much everywhere at this point. I mean, what are the odds we're just going to bump into another one of the Smash Bros.?"

Ike shrugged. "I bumped into you. Might happen again."

"Eh. Seriously, though, we need to look at getting more members. Can we just put up a "Now Hiring" sign and take a few mercenaries?"

Ike considered the possibility. "I don't think it would work. We have nothing to give them, and there's too much at stake to trust complete strangers. We'll have to find the other Smash Bros. first, and who knows where they are? That's why we're going to Toad Town." They rounded the corner and saw a green pipe in the middle of the room, which the Goomba had told them would lead to the surface. "We need information before we do anything else, and if need be, I am going to beat that information out of every Horizon we find. As soon as we enter this pipe, stay alert."

Pit grunted. "I know. Back into the danger zone, right?"

Ike approached the pipe. "Back into the danger zone. Ready?"

Pit cracked his neck on both sides. "Nope."

He jumped over the edge, taking a deep breath to steady himself. After plummeting through the darkness for a second, he felt the pipe shift direction and aim for the surface. A moment later, he burst into the light, then steadied himself as gravity pulled him back down. He landed into a crouch and slowly straightened up. "Finally landed it right."

The air whooshed out of him as something hit him from the top and forced his face into the dirt. A few white feathers drifted down by his head. Ike adjusted his head enough to look behind him. "What happened to the wings?"

Pit rolled off Ike. "I didn't think you were right below me. If it makes you feel any better, I fell on your sword, so..."

Ike stood up and brushed himself off. "You're alright, though?"

"Yeah. I've had worse."

Looking around, Ike was lucky he'd faceplanted into the dirt surrounding the pipe and not the light brown stonework that encompassed the street. In complete contrast to the mountain and the dank sewers, Toad Town was bright, fresh, clean-smelling, and quiet. Numerous houses and buildings created walls around them, painted with vivid colors to stand out from the greenest grass Ike had ever seen. An arched bridge led over a small stream near the edge of town. Up above, the sky was a brilliant blue with a few wisps of white. As if to accentuate the dreaminess, a Toad wandered by, smiled, and called out, "Welcome to Toad Town!"

Pit stretched behind Ike. "Well, at least we know we're here."

Ike stared. This place certainly didn't feel like the danger zone. He ignored a couple of birds playing in a bird bath and looked around for anywhere they could start. One thing stuck out to him. "How about a bath, Pit?"

Pit sniffed his clothes and raised his eyebrows. "Probably what my room smells like most of the time, actually, before Palutena cleans it anyway."

Ike looked at Pit. "You make the goddess of light clean your room?"

"Hey, I don't ask her to."

Ike figured it was better not to press. "At any rate, if my cape and your wings don't rat us out, our grunginess will. Let's find somewhere to clean ourselves and continue our search from there."


	16. Chapter 14: The Resistance

Ike sat crosslegged in the corner of the small wooden room, eyes closed and listening to the sounds around him. A few small Toad children played outside in the distance. A gentle breeze blew across the open window. Anything could hide danger, and Horizon had proven to be a mobile, capable enemy. He was used to listening to minute sounds, but he suspected he needed that ability now more than ever.

Something splashed in the room behind him. "Oh, great," Pit's voice sulked, "at this rate my wings are gonna be bald."

Ike opened his eyes. Honestly, this was kind of ridiculous. They'd found another Toad House in the town that, conveniently enough, featured free baths to each wayfarer, presumably because water was easier to come by than in a city located in a snowstorm. Ike had just taken his bath and, as his clothes were in the midst of being washed, had naught but a towel wrapped around him to preserve his dignity. If Horizon burst through the door now, they'd find a near-naked man with wet hair hanging around his face, towel probably ready to come undone with any sudden motion. Ike had seen a good many people die personally, but he could think of few that had gone so embarrassingly.

He'd at least had a fair bit of time to work out some semblance of a plan. Pit would change into his other clothes so as to not draw too much attention with his wings, though Ike would remain in his usual attire so they didn't both look like Horizons if Horizon was causing trouble of any sort. No matter how they approached the scenario, they stood out like sore thumbs, so Ike figured it hardly mattered.

When they were prepared, they'd simply go about Toad Town like tourists, asking questions about the "other humans" to elicit a response. No matter the info they received, Ike planned to check out this makeshift settlement near the castle to see what it contained. So long as it didn't turn into an all-out war (which was definitely a possibility), he believed he and Pit could fight their way out of a Horizon confrontment. If it turned out to be other Smash Bros., all the better. Their ranks would swell, and no blood would need to be shed.

Pit had been right, though, as had the Admin they'd killed in the Silph Co.. They couldn't take on Horizon, let alone Pane, with just the two of them. Ike needed info on where he could find the other Smash Bros., and when he'd gathered his own army, he'd figure out a way to throw Pane down. Surely one of the dimensions would hold something they could use to even the odds.

Ike glared at the backpack leaning against the wall. They also needed to get that stupid teleporter to work again so they could actually leave this goofy dimension.

"How long are you going to be, Pit?" Ike called.

Pit groaned. "Not too much longer. I have more to wash than you, alright?"

"I know. Just wanted an update."

At any rate, Ike was enjoying the warmth and sunshine while it lasted. He didn't plan on being in the dimension long, and he had no idea where the next stop would take them.

* * *

After Pit had finished his bath and their clothes had dried to a semi-decent level, they went back out into the masses, Pit wearing the uniform they'd taken at the Silph Co.. Their first stop was the center of town, which had a sizable cluster of people milling about, the better to blend in with if danger arose. Then again, even Pit stood a foot or so taller than the Toads, so they were beacons anyway. Ike wondered why his job had to be so hard.

To his delight, there was an official town bulletin board in the square displaying the latest news. Ike bent over to get a better view of its contents while Pit gazed around the square awkwardly from behind. There appeared to be a limited amount of information (Ike was beginning to question how these people got by at all). Front and center was a brief article which seemed to prove just how little there was to comment on:

_The Mushroom Kingdom's Reign of Peace Continues!_

_Today marks the two-month anniversary of the Mushroom Kingdom's relative sense of peace and quiet. Since the indefinite vacation of Princess Peach and the strange absences of Mario and the nefarious King Bowser, life endangerment and royal kidnappings have gone down 28%._

How did they figure that, Ike wondered. He also noticed they neglected to mention Luigi at all.

_On the downside, there is now little left to cover in the newsfield. Said one Toad Town resident, "The most exciting thing to happen to me in the past few months was when I mistook my eyedrops for my coffee creamer!" It is speculated by some that the removal of the key players in what's sometimes referred to as the "Mushroom Kingdom Drama" has a lot to do with the decreased country invasion forces and flying monsters._

"Must be a brief down period," Ike muttered. He looked over his shoulder at Pit. "See anything that looks interesting?"

Pit gestured to his left. "The roof of that house is spinning. How cool is that?"

Ike laughed and bowed his head. "No, to read. Anything we should know going forward?"

"Oh." Pit shuffled his feet. "Well, uh, that bit on the top-left looks interesting."

Ike eyed the top-left corner, which held only the message, 'News bulletin updated faithfully every Sunday!' He glanced back at Pit. "So how does that concern us?"

Pit began to blush. Ike was uncomfortably reminded of the whole Duplighost scenario on the mountain. Now what was Pit hiding?

Finally, Pit sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I can't read, Ike."

Ike stared. "You mean, you don't _like_ to read, or...?"

"Like, I can't. At all." He blushed deeper. "And I mean, it's not like it's hindered me all that much, and come on, it just looks boring..."

"Hey, I'm not judging you." Ike straightened up and cricked his back. "Want to know a secret? Boyd, one of my mercenaries, never learned how to read until he was fourteen. He'd probably try to kill me if he found out I told anyone, but there it is."

Pit chuckled. "Really?"

"Darn good with an axe, though, and that's what counts. You can just make time for it later, alright? Maybe we'll even do it on this trip."

Pit made a face like he wanted to be relieved but wasn't. "Yeah, sounds good. Learning."

Ike wandered forward a bit, stretching his arms back over his head. "Fun stuff, Pit. Life's not worth it if you don't learn anything from it." He turned to look at Pit, then noticed something strange on the back of the bulletin board. On closer inspection, it was...more writing. The board was double-sided?

"What's wrong?" Pit asked.

Ike shook his head. "Just more text. Looks like vandalism, though." He leaned forward and read the green-colored handwriting:

_Anyone else disturbed by those weird human guys who keep hanging around? Not trying to sound prejudiced, but who just hangs around town and asks questions about basic Mushroom Kingdom history and politics? Plus they've got some sort of camp out of town that they disappear into and keep all hush-hush. This Toad smells something fishy going on._

_- A concerned and mildly paranoid Toad_

"Huh," Ike grunted. "Now that _is_ interesting."

Pit came to stand beside him. "Now what?"

"Apparently, some Toad wrote something about the humans spotted around town. Says they've been asking questions about the kingdom's history and lore." He sighed in aggravation. "I don't think a Smash Brother would act like that, so it sounds like Horizon's gotten involved."

"Yeah," Pit agreed, "but also think of it this way. When we were in the building in that last dimension, Horizon had already taken the place over. Sounds like things are still kinda peaceful here, so there's hope."

Ike rubbed his chin. "The Silph Co.'s capture was kept under wraps, though, so we wouldn't hear about a takeover in the Mushroom Kingdom until we'd gotten inside."

He shifted his attention to the red-roofed castle not far to the north. It was Peach's Castle, minus the princess. It wasn't quite as large or as intricate as some of the grand castles and cathedrals Ike had seen, but it could still hold a moderate army and a large number of secrets. In addition, its guards were armed with spears and didn't look overly intimidating. They'd be no match if Horizon decided to force its way in.

* * *

Their next stop was the harbor in the southwestern end of the town. The sky was just beginning to turn from blue to orange, indicating evening was near. A few boats big and small alike lined the docks, while what looked like the upscale part of town lined the opposite direction. Ike wouldn't have minded watching the sun set, but they had work to do and little time to do it in.

Ike stopped next to a Toad dressed as a sailor and crossed his arms, pretending to admire the ocean. "Harbor's pretty nice this time of day."

The Toad seemed to be making something out of threads in his hands, leaning against a pole on the edge of the dock. "Always, always. Weather's been nice, too. Good winds, fair temperature..."

"A long time ago, a very smart person told me the sun striking the water was like the horizon itself was on fire. It's a nice picture."

Pit turned away slightly. "I wouldn't mind setting fire to a Horizon or two..."

The Toad didn't appear to hear Pit. "Yup. Never got tired of it. I'm a mushroom of the sea, through and through."

Ike extended a hand. "I'm Ike. This is Pit. We're new to the area."

The Toad took his hand and gave one firm shake, then returned to his thread-project. "The name's Sall T.. Born on the sea, lived on the sea, probably will die on the sea."

Ike decided it was time to cut the small talk and go straight for answers. "We're looking for some acquaintances of ours that we think are also in the area. Humans like us. Have you seen them around here?"

The sailor nodded. "They come through every now and then, usually different people each time. I figured they were part of a project of some sort. They with you guys?"

Ike mulled his next sentence over carefully. "They're not _with us_, no. We stay in touch every now and then, but we're separate. They haven't been stirring up too much trouble, have they?" Ike added, attempting a little humor.

"Nah, they're always polite, good people to talk to. They usually ask about the area, new technology, that kind of thing. Guess they're not from around here either."

Pit leaned forward so he could see past Ike. "Did you see what they looked like? We may recognize some of them."

The Toad looked up at the sky, deep in thought. "Let's see...the ones I talked to were a man and a woman, youngish by the looks of things. The man was about your height, red-haired, spoke with an accent. The woman was a pretty little thing, blonde hair. Ring any bells?"

Ike tried to remember the faces of all the Smash Bros.. He only remembered a select few. Actually, the only one he recalled who had red hair was Bowser, who most certainly didn't resemble Ike. He gave Sall T. a lopsided smile. "Sounds a little familiar, yeah. We've been trying to get in contact with them, so anything you can tell us is appreciated."

"Yeah, no problem."

"Oh yeah," Ike added, "we've heard they've set up a little place not far from here. Have you seen it, or have they just kept to themselves mostly?"

Sall T. shook his head. "Haven't seen it personally, no. The way they act, they sound kind of like your average explorer. Another salt I work with went on down by the castle - "

"Ike," Pit muttered. When Ike didn't hear, he tugged on his shirt sleeve.

Ike tried to keep his head on Sall T.. "What is it, Pit?"

"Look behind us," Pit urged, a little more frantically this time.

Ike glanced over his shoulder casually. He didn't see what Pit was talking about at first until his eyes fell on the couple of humans at the edge of the harbor, turned away from them and just out of earshot. Ike's heart leaped into his throat. He couldn't see well enough from this distance, but they didn't resemble any Smash Brother Ike knew.

"Come on," Ike hissed.

He ran as fast as he dared toward a large pile of wooden crates and jumped over one, landing quietly on the other side of it and crouching so his head was below the surface. Pit fluttered down in front of him a second later. Ike peered through a slit between two crates. He had just enough space to see the two humans.

"Think they saw us?" Pit asked.

"Don't know. They're acting pretty normal right now."

"Hey, where'd you guys go?" he heard Sall T. ask. The Toad grunted. "Ah, now I look like a crazy old sea dog. The humans are getting stranger by the day."

As best Ike could tell, the humans weren't the same ones Sall T. referred to, as both were male and had dark hair. They were dressed in what Ike guessed was common civilian clothing with simplistic designs as to not stand out.

"I don't remember everyone from the Smash Bros.," said Pit, "but they're not part of it. I guess they could be ordinary humans..."

Ike shrugged. "Might be. But still, if humans are so rare around here, what are the odds of a whole band of them appearing here right after Horizon's attacked..."

"Yeah, you're right." Pit stood up enough to see over the top of the crate. "Wish I knew what they were talking about."

"It's impossible to get close without being seen. We'll just have to wait until they disappear."

It took five minutes for the humans to depart, heading east by the looks of things. When they were sure the coast was clear, Ike and Pit found a cramped alley heading north and sneaked through, coming to a stop in the middle where few could see them. Ike put his hands on his hips and strolled back and forth.

"I can't wait 'til we get this settled," Pit groaned. "We should just head to that camp, bust our ways in, and demand some answers."

"I trust your abilities, Pit," said Ike, "but that would be a dumb idea. If they can spontaneously release mist to corner and paralyze us, what else can they do now that they have the upper hand?"

Ike raised his hand as sunlight reflected off a broken mirror into his eyes. He stepped back so he could see again. Come to think of it, there was something else in the mirror... He resisted the urge to turn and look. Peeking around the alley's corner behind them was a little yellow-spotted head.

"Pit," Ike said as quietly as he could. "Six o' clock."

Pit looked up at the sky. "You're way off. Looks more like four."

Ike sighed and walked forward. "Just stay where you are. Act natural."

He rounded the next corner, then looked for any available footholds onto the rooftops. He'd never been much for parkour, but life on the road had forced him to master climbing. He kicked off the corner of a building and settled on a window ledge, then reached to the surface of the roof and pulled himself up. He crouched, walked gingerly to the other side, and peered down. Sure enough, there was a yellow-spotted Toad spying on them from behind a wall. What in the world was he doing?

Glad for thick boots, he hopped off the building and landed by the Toad. The Toad let out a quick shriek and backed up to the wall.

Ike held up his hands. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Can I stop acting natural now?" Pit called.

Ike leaned past the corner and waved him on. Pit hurried over to Ike, clearly confused. Ike returned his attention to the Toad. "How long have you been following us?" The Toad relaxed somewhat, but didn't show any intentions of talking. Ike rubbed his face and considered his next words. "I don't know why you were tailing us, but we're not with the other humans in town, if that's what you were thinking. We're just as confused about them as you are. We'll help you if you'll help us."

Pit straightened up. "Oooooh. Six o' clock. Right."

The Toad touched his fingers together repeatedly, obviously conflicted. "If you're not with the other humans...where are you from?"

Pit laughed nervously. "There's no answer we can give you that won't make us sound crazy. Suffice to say for now that both us and the other humans come from far, far away. Just not the same place. We're thinking the other humans might be up to no good, so we'd appreciate any help you could give us."

The Toad began to sweat and poked his fingers together faster. "I was...I was told to follow you guys since we thought you were with those other weirdos, but...well..." He looked Ike in the eyes. "You don't look the same, and you don't act the same...and you say you're not with them..."

Ike gave him a gentle smile. "We want to know what they're after, and if it's going to hurt you, we want to protect you."

The Toad slowed his movements down and lowered his eyes. He seemed to be reaching some sort of decision. "If I do that...it's for the best...but if I'm wrong, they'll saute me alive..." He took a deep breath, put his hands by his sides, and looked at Ike again. "I want you to come with me. There are some people I want you to meet. If I'm right, they can help you, and maybe you can help them."

Pit crossed his arms. "Sounds like a lead."

Ike nodded. "Lead the way."

Visibly steeling himself, the Toad guided them out of the alley and toward the north side of town, taking care not to draw too much attention. They took a few more back alleys, slipping across open spaces when no one was looking. Ike was afraid they'd bump into one of the other humans at some point; to his relief, they never saw them again.

The Toad led them to the left edge of town, where the paved streets of Toad Town started turning into the dirt and dust of the road. A small, winding path led from the outskirts of town through a procession of trees, hills, and ledges. Just as Ike thought they were heading into the wild again, the Toad pressed himself against the outer wall and looked down.

"The entrance is right about here," he muttered. "But you have to promise you won't tell anyone about this."

"Well, we weren't planning on staying long," said Pit.

"Your secret's safe," Ike added. "Go ahead."

The Toad bent down, grabbed a part of the grass, and pulled up. A square mat of grass lifted up with it, revealing a dark, rocky hole in the ground. He looked back at them. "You're a bit bigger than us Toads, so it may be a little rough here for you. We're almost there. Just make sure no one's looking when you drop down." He hopped into the hole and quickly disappeared from view.

Pit stepped to the hole next. "We're going underground again?" Shaking his head, he scooted over the edge and dropped down.

Ike took a brief look around to make sure there were no onlookers, then squeezed through the hole and found a steep slope beneath his feet. Before he could get too far, he closed the mat above, then let himself slide to the bottom. The passage was almost pitch black, and Ike could feel numerous spider webs clinging to the walls. "Pit? You here?"

"Right in front of you," Pit's voice said from two feet away. "So where does this tunnel lead?"

Ike heard footsteps farther ahead. "It's a separate part of the sewers," the Toad's voice replied. "It fell into disrepair awhile ago. Not too many people know about it - I didn't until recently. Good way of getting around, which I'm sure the rest of us will tell you about when we meet... Don't worry, it's not far."

They followed the Toad somewhat blindly, trying to ignore the must, cobwebs, and presumably hordes of critters scattered around. They turned a few more corners, then slid down another slope and found the passage a little brighter than before. Up ahead was a wide open room at the end of the passage. Orange light indicated fires lit.

"Alright, can you stay here?" the Toad prompted. "I don't want to spring you too early. I actually wasn't supposed to bring you at all, but what the heck, they always said I was an idiot."

"Nah, you seem like a brave little guy," said Pit, giving him a thumbs up.

The Toad smiled, then entered the open room, becoming little more than a small silhouette. Ike heard voices up ahead - more Toads, by the sounds of things.

"Back already, Hace T.?" a slightly deeper voice asked.

Apparently, the yellow-spotted Toad was called Hace T.. In a way, it felt like an appropriate name for him. "Well," Hace T. began, "I started doing what you said, then I found something else important, then everything I had planned got blown to pieces, so I improvised and found help."

"Uh-oh," numerous voices muttered.

"Trust me, it'll work, probably," Hace T. said. "You sent me to tail Human Couple #2, and I followed them all the way to the harbor, right? They kept talking about the same old, same old - all 'this dimension' and 'catalysts.'"

"Catalyst?" Ike murmured. Pit glanced at him. "That's what a Horizon called me back at the Silph Co.. What's going on here?"

"Then I saw something profound while at the harbor," Hace T. continued. "I actually found yet another pair of humans, but on closer inspection, I think they're totally unrelated. Well, not totally... I think they know the other humans from before, but they don't get along or something." Hace T. took a deep breath. "So, hold onto your seats...I brought them here."

"You _what?!_" the deeper voice yelled. "The humans...here? What possessed you to blow our cover so openly?!"

The Toad poked his fingers together again. "Maybe it'd be better if they just explained. You can come on out, guys."

Ike nudged Pit and strode forward, entering the orange-lit room. Now that he was inside, he could see a vague ring of Toads sitting around what at first appeared to be burning coals, but a second look revealed them to be bright glowing orange sticks of some sort. As always, Ike decided it was better not to question the nuances of the dimension.

Hace T. extended an open hand to them. "Members of the resistance, meet, uh..."

"I'm Ike." He inclined his head briefly to the angel beside him. "This is Pit." Pit waved nervously.

An older, grizzled Toad sat at the far center part of the ring. He glowered at the two newcomers. "So you're the two humans Hace T. is referring to? Just so you know, half of us here are trained combatants, and we've set up numerous plans to foil spies, so before you think about reporting to your superiors..."

Pit held his hands up in defense. "Relax. We're not spies. I'm not even human."

"Not human?!" the older Toad exclaimed.

"Pit," Ike whispered.

"If you're not human, then what are you?" the Toad demanded.

Pit froze as he realized just how complicated he'd made things. He smiled anxiously. "Well, you know, not everyone can be human...in fact, I'm pretty sure the only human here is Ike."

"Alright," Ike began, "I have to make one thing clear: little of what we can tell you will make a whole lot of sense. The more I hear about these other humans, the more I'm concluding they're our common enemy, a group called Horizon. Horizon is dangerous, one of the most dangerous enemies I've ever faced, and I want to make sure they don't hurt anyone else. We want to help you if you'll assist us in return. We can tell you specifics about us, but remember, it's not going to sound feasible at first."

Pit stared at Ike. "Are you sure it's a good idea to tell them so much?"

"We're going to have to if we want to get anywhere."

The grizzled Toad glared at Ike. "My first priority right now is your proof that you're not with those other humans. No harm's been done so far, but we have reason to believe they're not planning for our kingdom's well-being."

Ike maintained his posture as best he could. "I don't know that we have any concrete evidence to show you now. Your colleague, Hace T., kind of made all this up on the spot, so we're really not responsible." Hace T. blushed.

"You want proof?" Pit asked. "How much you wanna bet lasers will start flying at our heads if those other humans see us? It wouldn't be the first time they'd tried to kill us, maim us, capture us, or otherwise. Let's just not put that to the test, though."

Ike was concerned about the teleporter currently in his backpack. The thing had lost all its power, but did that mean Horizon couldn't hear them or track them through it? He hoped the group of Toads didn't give away too much information before he could get the teleporter a relatively safe distance away.

"The best I can offer you is this," said Ike. "Give us some sort of parameter that ensures we can't mislead or harm you. We can't offer proof, but you can stop us from working against you. Fair enough?"

The older Toad growled thoughtfully. "Fair enough. If you really have the information we need, we may have no choice. The other humans are pretty well-guarded." He held Ike's gaze for awhile. Ike returned the stare, unsure of what to expect. "Well? You'd better get explaining where you're from, who you are, and why you're here, and I promise none of us will jeer or laugh until it's all over."

"Somehow I doubt that," Pit mumbled.

Ike began with his own dimension and summoning to the Linking Dimension, covering everything from Horizon's attack to the Silph Co. to their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom. It actually felt a little good telling the whole thing to someone, even though he knew they probably wouldn't believe a word of it. Still, could anyone blame him for trying?

At the end, the old Toad switched his gaze from Ike to Pit repeatedly. "You're right. That was pretty crazy."

"That was awesome!" a younger Toad shouted. Another Toad smacked him in the back of the head.

"You're really from another dimension?" Hace T. asked. "Both of you?"

"You'll have to take our words for it," Ike responded. "The best confirmation you can hope for right now is seeing us warp out of here personally. That and how Horizon tries to murder us every step of the way."

The old Toad stroked the line of fuzz growing on his chin. "In truth, just as strange has happened. I trust we all remember that awful Shroob invasion?" The other Toads nodded, grunted, and even laughed like it was a casual event last summer. "Aliens, come to ransack our humble kingdom. And now if these strangers are correct, we have invaders from another world entirely." He sighed. "Consider us on your side for now. My name is Truss T.. We'll clue you in to what we've learned and what we're planning, but yes, we will take preliminary measures to ensure you don't betray us later. Someone, the shock cuffs, if you will?"

Pit blinked. "Shock cuffs?"

A Toad retreated to the edge of the room, then returned with a couple of metal cuffs. He handed them to Truss T., who walked to Ike and Pit and held the cuffs out. "_These_ are shock cuffs. Simply put, they will strike you with high, incapacitating voltage at the press of a button if you do something we don't like." He lifted them a little higher. "You can walk away now, or help us with our plan while wearing these. The choice is yours."

Pit grimaced at the shock cuffs, then pulled Ike a little farther back and turned from the Toads. "Alright, time to huddle. What do you think, Ike? Good idea or no?"

Ike groaned. "I don't think we're powerful enough on our own to investigate Horizon's camp, assuming it's theirs. At the same time, for all their suspicion, we don't know that we can trust these Toads completely, either. If we do one thing that looks bad, we could be foaming at the mouth, flailing on the floor."

Pit crossed his arms. "Yeah. I think we should do it."

"You think so, huh?"

"I mean, I'm not fond of the concept either, but how else are we supposed to find a way out of here? We need these guys, and they're not cooperating unless we put ourselves at a little risk."

Ike inclined his head. "You have a point. I'm in if you are."

They turned back to Truss T., still holding the shock cuffs out. Pit cleared his throat. "We'll help you, even if it means wearing those weird cuff things."

Truss T. bowed his head. "I'm kind of grateful for that, actually. You look well-armed, and we'll need people with info and combat skill on our team. Now, hold out one of your arms..."

Ike reluctantly extended his left arm, and Pit held out his right. Truss T. affixed the cuffs to their wrists and clicked them into place. It was rather sleek and not very heavy, but that only seemed to belie its danger.

"To get these off," Truss T. continued, returning to his spot in the circle, "you must either enter in a specific five-digit passcode or use a certain key. Only a few of us have those codes or keys, so don't wander off with those cuffs. Mighty hard to get them off without either of those means."

Pit waved his hand around to get a feel for the cuff's effect. "Where'd you get these things, anyway?"

"Used to work in the castle as captain of the guard. I have some friends that owe me favors, and many of them are just as suspicious of the humans in town." He gestured to the floor. "Now sit, and we'll discuss strategy. Remember, there's no backing out now."

And with the shock cuffs attached, there was no disobeying them. Ike's heart sank as he and Pit joined the Toads in the circle. For good measure, he took the backpack off and slid it to the edge of the room, where any Horizon eavesdroppers - if there were any - would hopefully find it harder to listen in.

"Now," Truss T. said, "we've been acting fast in the last few days. We originally considered these humans as no more than a strange bunch of tourists. Of course we're familiar with humans - we have Princess Peach and the Mario Bros., after all. But not so many at once, asking questions we all learned the answers to in first grade and camped just outside town. I've seen a great many threats to our kingdom, and this resembles a threat. According to you two, this threat is called Horizon and is much more dangerous than we'd envisioned.

"I was always a rather stealthy soldier, so one day I put my old training back to use and sneaked to the human encampment outside the city. I wasn't able to get too close, but I stayed on the outskirts for hours and listened to the humans. They kept bringing up topics like orders, admins, and a funny little word called 'assimilation.'"

Ike's expression darkened. "That's definitely Horizon. We've encountered a few of their Admins before."

Truss T. nodded. "Even more suspiciously, they mentioned orders involving 'capture' and 'termination.' One of them mentioned Peach, our princess, specifically. I knew then that these foreigners represented a real threat, and through my extensive connections, formed the little group you see to investigate them more thoroughly.

"In spite of how little time they've spent here, their base is already pretty big and well-defended. I've spotted technology the likes I've never seen before, and how the blazes does one just build a wide metal camp in a few days, anyway? Infiltrating the camp won't be easy, but we're going to do it, and we believe we've found a way."

Ike rested his chin on his fist. "So what's your goal? You can't just take them all on yourself."

"No, and we don't intend to. We just need to kill two birds with one stone. We need to find incriminating evidence against them, and discover exactly what they're planning so we can stop it before it happens. The sooner we can find those two things, the better. If need be, we can release the whole darn Mushroom Kingdom army on them, but it would be considered unjustified aggression without the evidence first."

Pit blew his hair out of his face. "Even if you sent your whole army after them, you'd probably just invoke Horizon's wrath, and then they'd send _their_ whole army after you. And trust me, that isn't pretty."

"Regardless, we need to know what they're trying to do. Best case scenario, we can find a way to shoo them away without a confrontation." Truss T. grabbed a pointing stick and a crude hand-drawn map from behind him. "I had to make this map on the spot. It's a general representation of this Horizon's camp. During my scouting, I used what technology I had on me to analyze the place. They have a small tower in the northeast corner that I believe houses a radar machine that can detect us if we get too close, and if that happens, we're done for. We need someone to get up there and disable it so we can infiltrate the place quietly."

Pit began tapping his knee anxiously. "I can't see that turning out too pretty. They'll probably have people stationed up there, and even if we could knock them out or kill them, it'll land us in a heap of trouble when word gets out to the rest."

Truss T. grinned. "Not necessarily. We accept that we may have to get violent at times, but I didn't see too many people around that camp. Doesn't mean there can't be more, but I estimate no more than fifteen hanging around there, and given the size of the camp, they can't be everywhere at once.

"The real trouble, though, is getting to that tower in the first place. The underground passage we're in now can take us to a few spots around the camp, but there are only two ways we can get to the top of the tower: from inside or outside. We'll be going through too much of the camp to get to it from the inside, and climbing the outer wall will give the radar plenty of time to rat us out and is just too dangerous otherwise. We could really use a deus ex machina right now."

Ike nudged Pit again. Pit grinned sheepishly and said, "Remember how I said I wasn't human?" He pulled his shirt off, letting his white wings unfold. "Oh, man, feels good to let them stretch after so long."

The Toads yelped and recoiled, then stared at Pit's wings with interest. A purple-spotted Toad next to Pit poked his left wing. The angel jerked it back on instinct.

"You're an...angel?" Hace T. asked.

Pit beamed, clearly happy to flourish his wings again. "Pit, captain of Lady Palutena's holy guard and a proud denizen of Angel Land. And I'm pretty sure I can just fly up that tower and disable the radar for you."

Truss T. took a few seconds before shutting his gaping mouth, then raised his eyebrows, pulled out a list, and checked off a box with the words "deus ex machina" beside it. "Well, if I question it, I'll probably jinx it, so moving on. If you'll be so kind, Pit, you'll fly on up the tower, take out any guards there if the need arises, and shut down that radar. From there, we'll split into two groups and sneak around the complex. It probably won't take long for the people there to realize their radar's gone, so we'll have to move fast. I've pinpointed a few locations that may house valuable data, so we'll hit those first, and if we still have nothing, we'll retreat. We're just common Toads; it'll be near-impossible for them to find us after a successful retreat, and they'd have to just up and declare a war if they want to force us out. We'll use their anonymity against them."

Ike crossed his arms. "It seems no matter what, there'll be a lot of risk involved."

Truss T. tapped his pointing stick on his palm. "We just don't know what we're up against. I've even seen a few droids roaming about the camp, which doesn't bode too well for us."

Ike frowned. "Droid? What's that?"

"Basically a fancy word for robot," Pit answered.

"Alright, what's a robot?"

Truss T. went back to rubbing his chin. "I guess they don't have those where you come from."

"Not that I know of, no."

Pit gestured with his hands as he attempted to explain the concept. "It's like a...a thing that can move on its own, real technological kind of stuff, lots of buttons and wires."

"It's a hunk of metal that can shoot you full of holes," Truss T. summarized.

Pit scratched his head. "That too."

"In this case, anyway. They spell trouble for us, put it that way." He looked down at the map again. "Alright, where were we... We'll be armed and ready for danger, but for the most part, we'll be winging it. It's all for princess and country, right?"

"Princess and country," another older Toad agreed.

"So," Truss T. continued, "we'll hit those potential data centers and take what we can. There's no undoing the plan from then - at some point, they'll notice their stuff has been filched, and their actions toward our people may become more unstable in the future. Whether we have what we need or not, we'll leave the camp within two hours. That should give us plenty of time to search and escape."

"I have an amendment to make to your plan," Ike added.

Truss T. raised an eyebrow. "An amendment?"

Ike lazily waved a hand at Pit. "Pit and I don't come from here. Our only surefire way out of this dimension is to restore energy to that teleporter we mentioned earlier. When you guys are ready to leave, let us know, and Pit and I will stay behind and find a way to recharge the teleporter. We don't want to get you involved beyond that, and if things go south, it'll look like we were the ones who sabotaged their camp."

The Toads fell quiet as they appeared to consider it. After a time, Truss T. raised his head. "Much as I want to believe you, your amendment could just as easily be a play to stay behind and alert Horizon to what we've done. The more I think about it, the more I doubt you're affiliated with them, but nevertheless, what we do tonight affects the whole kingdom."

"Tonight?" Hace T. repeated. "We're just planning tonight, right?"

"Horizon is dangerous, Hace," said Truss T.. "We don't know how long we have before they act against us. Besides, as the evening draws nearer, the darkness can cover us. It would be best to act sooner rather than later, especially considering we have two new guests who we haven't entirely accommodated for." He returned his focus to Ike. "But, it appears you know little enough about this place to cause us too much grief if you alert Horizon. If the rest of you are in agreement, I will allow them to stay behind."

One by one, the Toads nodded or uttered their agreement. A sense of relief washed over Ike. With the shock cuffs on, they couldn't have just left the group without permission.

As if reading Ike's mind, Truss T. continued, "Before you leave us, of course, you may want your shock cuffs removed. Don't forget to see me before going on your own."

Ike tapped his cuff. "I don't fancy wearing this thing for life."

"Then it's decided. We'll go over the finer points before departing, but beyond that, you already understand the scope of our plan. I'm not going to trust you with my wallet, but I'm glad to have you two on board at any rate."

For once, Ike felt a glimmer of hope. It was incredibly dangerous - any encounter with Horizon was - but at last there was a visible way out. This camp was almost certainly the base of info the Admin from the Silph Co. had told them about. If they could escape with both valuable information and a recharged teleporter...

"Just think, Pit," Ike muttered. "If things go well, we could be out of this dimension tonight."


End file.
